Green Energy: An Ideal Energy Solution for Sustainable Development of Afar Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Green energy is the primary concern for the sustainable development of Ethiopia’s Afar region. The study’s goals are to present scientific evidence of the Afar region’s energy potential to researchers and industry sectors. We used solar shortwave, radiation transfer model, miniscale meteorological model for the Weather Research Forecast (WRF), and spatial and temporal simulation as research techniques. The data show that the Afar region has an energy potential of 239.9 W/m2 average solar radiation flux, 2.102 MW·h/m2 average annual solar density, 131.18 W/m2 average wind power density at $h=10\text{m}$ , and 204.5 W/m2 average wind power density at $h=50\text{m}$ . We discovered that solar energy and wind energy are potential energy sources in the Afar region for energy consumption such as solar cooking, solar lighting, and small DC applications.