Analysis Of the Role of Renewable Energy Towards Successful Implementation of Sustainable Development Pillars”

Abstract

Sustainable Development is all about future centric. The judicious use of resources to facilitate a better tomorrow. Renewable energy is one of the way we can contribute towards a sustainable future. This is a useful energy collected from renewable resources which are naturally replenished or restored. Access to energy services is s a pre-requisite for a life of dignity. Natural energy like wind, sun and water are for free. Renewables are in fact the only technologies to produce and provide affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. The implementation of 100% of renewable energies in Uganda and worldwide is the cheapest and fastest way to live no one behind hence achieving other objectives and SDG goal 7 and 13. The Uganda Vision 2040 states that “Ugandans aspire to have access to clean, affordable and reliable energy sources to facilitate industrialisation”. Even the second National Development Plan (NDP II) (2015/2016 to 2019/2020), which prioritized energy as critical for Uganda’s aspirations for Vision 2040 and the attainment of upper middle-income status mimics this. The Vision acknowledges energy as one of the key fundamentals required to harness the country’s opportunities and drive the industrial and service sectors. Renewables are easy, modular and flexible technologies to install and manage. With the right financial mechanism, energy systems can be installed to create local value and create employment. Renewable energy has potential to reduce inequalities in urban and rural population. Renewable energy is the only way to combat climate change. They save bio diversity through cooking using Electricity thus reducing air pollution and greenhouse emissions. Clearly, renewable energy is the way to go. However, the road to attaining this is not that smooth as it can be imagined. Uganda’s population at of 2021 stood at 45.85 million and as such, increase in population leads to an increase in the demand for energy and thus open the sector for further development. In the same vain, besides the increase in demand for energy, implementation in the renewable energy sector is currently met with other considerable challenges including but not limited to; acute power shortages and Climate change which impacted on hydropower generation, while investment in other forms of renewable energy is hampered by the high upfront cost of technologies such as solar but the sector has nonetheless strived through it all. This thesis stands surety for the achievement of the SD pillars using this channel of focus on renewable energy and the case study being Uganda. It gives a rich introduction to renewable energy and the existing renewable resources, analysis of the existing literature in relation to Renewable Energy and the role it has played in attaining the Sustainable Development pillars in Uganda, it examines the challenges encountered along the path of developing renewable energy sector, in pursing Sustainable Development therefrom. My research methodology is spick and span together with its design, Sampling Techniques and Data Analysis. Finally, the legal analysis of renewable energy sector and of course, the findings and what I opine to recommend