Cameroon Photovoltaic Power Generation and Energy Storage Solution

Photovoltaic power generation has become an important pillar of the energy development strategies of all countries. Cameroon is committed to attaining 25% of energy production from renewable energy sources, with solar energy contributing up to 6% of total energy production in the country by 2035 (Power Africa, 2019).

Although Cameroon has formulated a basic policy aimed at promoting PV power generation in its long-term renewable energy development plan, it has not clearly defined which department is responsible for promoting the exploitation of solar energy resources, notably PV power.

The government, through the national utility Energy of Cameroon (ENEO) and the Electricity Development Corporation (EDC), is equally involved in the development of solar PV power stations, which supplies additional electricity to localities that are not connected to the national grid network (MINEE, 2014).

The financing structure is sharply unbalanced The financing of solar PV power generation in Cameroon comes mostly from public-private partnerships (PPP) and accounts for more than 97.89% of total investment in the sector.

Though, Njoh et al. (2019a) vaguely proposed decentralization of the institutional structure for energy policy administration as a solution to facilitate the development of PV power generation in Cameroon. However, no specific recommendation was given on how to refine the application process for PV power generation in Cameroon.

Cameroon is located in the center of the Central African tropics. It is an ideal place to capture and store solar radiation. About 10 trillion kWh of solar energy reaches the surface of Cameroon every year (Hermann et al., 2014). If 0.02% of this is converted into electric energy, it can make up the power supply gap.