Burkina Faso's national energy policy

• Official Name: Burkina Faso.

Summary: Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in western Africa, with one of the poorest populations in the world and limited natural resources. With energy sources that are susceptible to climate change and fluctuating prices, the government has developed a national energy policy to diversify its energy sources.

As one of the poorest countries in the world, approximately 80 percent of Burkina Faso’s population relies on subsistence agriculture. Burkina Faso’s population, which was about 23 million in 2024, is expected to double by about 2050. With very few industries and services, fossil fuel use is low, and the country depends primarily on biomass as an energy source. Consumption of biomass in the form of fuel wood and charcoal has resulted in steady deforestation, with a loss in forest acreage of about 9 to 34 square miles (15 to 55 square kilometers) per year. While there has been increased fossil fuel consumption, with imported petroleum making up the second-highest amount of total energy consumed, it is expected that biomass dependence will continue, given the high levels of poverty. In 2023, the country consumed 37,000 barrels of petroleum a day. All of this fuel was imported.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2023, the residential sector consumed the greatest amount of the country's energy at 48.3 percent. It was followed by commercial and public services at 25 percent and transport at 21.1 percent.

Per capita electricity consumption is low, 3.481 million Btu in 2023, according to the World Factbook; the small number of homes with electricity (19.5 percent in 2022) account for 33 percent of the total amount consumed. Just 3.4 percent of the rural population has electricity. Industry and government administration are the second- and third-highest consumers of electricity. Sonabel is the National Electricity Company of Burkina Faso, the state energy provider. Sonabel is responsible for the production, transportation, and distribution of electricity throughout the country.

A loan from the African Development Bank aimed to improve electricity access for 800,000 by 2011. The project, called the Electricity Infrastructure Strengthening and Rural Electrification Project, was intended to help meet the demand of a population growing at 10 percent annually by connecting Burkina Faso’s electrical grid to those of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, which, as coastal countries, have easier access to sources of electricity and can increase supply to the landlocked country. However, the gains made by the project were modest; between the start of the project and 2013, the percentage of the population with access to electricity increased only 4 percent, from 10 percent to 14. In 2013 the World Bank gave Burkina Faso a $50 million loan to further improve electricity access, with plans including the construction of two power stations in the remote, but rapidly developing, cities of FadaN’gourma and Ouahigouya.

The country faces issues of population migration to other countries, political and economic conflict in neighboring countries, and the geographic barrier of being landlocked. Additional needs to attract investment include improving legal security for investments, increasing tax revenues, and establishing reliable banks. However, coups in January and September 2022 threw the nation into disarray. In keeping with policy, the United States suspended some assistance to the government of Burkina Faso. This included the $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact, which was meant to improve energy reliability, cost-effectiveness, and access to spur economic development.

Renewable Energy Development

The government of Burkina Faso has introduced a national energy policy that emphasizes the need for economic and social development. While the policy identifies a range of potential energy sources, it promotes renewable energy as a means for reducing costs, increasing energy diversity, and improving efficiency. Burkina Faso has high potential for solar energy generation, with 2,500 to 3,500 hours of sunshine each year and an average production of 5.5 kilowatt-hours per square meter per day. Solar potential is greatest in the northern part of the country, and pilot biodiesel projects have been occurring since the early 2000s. While still in the experimental stages, the use of biodiesel offers the potential to open a promising market. Burkina Faso is looking at the jatropha plant to blend with ordinary diesel, and hundreds of hectares have already been planted with it. Because the jatropha plant can be grown in areas where traditional agriculture is not viable, it is not expected to compete with food crops for land.

Bibliography

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