This International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report focuses on bioenergy in Africa, as this form of renewable energy represents almost 50% of the total primary energy supply (TPES) for the African continent, and more than 60% of the Sub-Saharan TPES. Bioenergy is a strategic asset for Africa’s energy future and needs to be assessed in a transparent manner.  This report is a first step towards bringing clarity to decision makers on the information available on bioenergy potentials.

At IRENA’s behest, the German Biomass Research Centre (Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gGmbH - DBFZ) collected recent studies assessing bioenergy potential in Africa, compared their various methodologies, benchmarked the results, and identified the key dimensioning elements for those assessments. The report highlights the need for developing recommendations and standard methods to provide accurate estimates of bioenergy potentials.