Availability of Renewable Energy Sources in Mauritania: Potential, Current Status and Mitigation Potential

Abstract

For decades, Mauritania's economy has been fueled by thermal power.  As a developing economy, Mauritania's electricity demand has long been relatively low, though it has increased recently due to economic growth, urbanization, and industrial activities. The rapid growth in demand is making the country more dependent on oil and gas-based generation power plants, which a resultant drain on the national economy. However, Mauritania has abundant renewable energy potential. the deployment of renewable energy can be an alternative solution to reduce the dependence on fossil resources. In this paper, we have reviewed the situation of the power generation sector, the potential of renewable energy, the integration of renewable energy in Mauritania's energy mix and the mitigation potential. The installed capacity in 2018 is 415.5 MW. The percentage of thermal power plants is 59.8% and 40.2% of the integrated capacity is provided by renewable energy. In 2018, the total electric power generation was 1958.5 GWh, the contribution of renewable energy was 979.75 GWh. The IPCC 2006 methodology was used to estimate GHG emissions. The results showed that the integration of renewable energy into the country's energy mix reduced emissions by approximately 212.58 Gg CO2eq.