The suitability maps, contain information on locations suitable for installation of the respective wind electricity generation systems in accordance with the restrictive criteria adopted. Locations are evaluated according to their suitability for onshore wind systems deployment according to topographical, legal, and social constraints, and well as factors that could facilitate or impede wind generation development. The present study focus exclusively on land suitability for the installation of onshore wind turbine and wind farm. The study is conducted on a regional scale. The results can be used for identification of potential areas of interest for solar generation deployment, and as a support for integration between electricity grid expansion and off-grid electrification policies. Off-grid installations - practical scenario: Installation NOT connected to the electrical grid, ease of installation maximized

The resource was developed by NEXANT (EEUU) for ECREEE.using 3TiER global solar dataset with an annual temporal resolution. The project was funded by USAID. This parameter is of particular interest to photovoltaic installations and includes both Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DIF). The format is raster (.geotiff) and the resolution is 3km.

The suitability maps, contain information on locations suitable for installation of the respective solar systems in accordance with the restrictive criteria adopted. Locations are evaluated according to their suitability for solar systems deployment according to topographical, legal, and social constraints, as well as factors that could facilitate or impede solar generation development. The study is conducted on a regional scale. The results can be used for identification of potential areas of interest for solar generation deployment, and as a support for integration between electricity grid expansion and off-grid electrification policies.

Estimated data of the entire primary and secondary road network in West Africa including the road surface type, condition and traffic volume in shapefile format. Data was compiled by TECSULT for the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), a project which was led by the World Bank.

Main water areas in the ECOWAS region extracted from the DIVA-GIS project

Dataset includes an estimation of the demand for electricity from households onto a geographic grid at 1km x 1km of spatial resolution. Dataset mainly focus on the demand for electricity of urban residential, commercial, and small industries, according to the WAPP 2013 (Miketa, A. and Merven, B., 2013) subdivision. Dataset does not include demand from heavy industry (e.g. mining), which connects to generation at a high voltage and generally requires less transmission and no distribution infrastructure. Taking that into consideration, in rural areas the electricity demand can be considered closely related to the number of inhabitants, the principal dis-aggregation algorithm, that estimates the electricity demand for each cell (x,y) of the geographic grid is based on:. Electricity demand(x,y) = electricity demand(capita) * number people(x,y) where Electricity demand(x,y) corresponds to the demand for the cell at the x,y position, the electricity demand per capita is calculated at national level according to IRENA 2013 data, and the number of people (x,y) corresponds to the people living in the cell at the x,y position Data is expressed as electricity demand in MWh per year per cell for the year 2015

The layer provides quantitative information about the inhabitants main points in the different countries for the ECOWAS region

This dataset was generated using GIS methods to estimate technical potential for solar electricity generation in rural areas of ECOWAS region. Technical potential of solar generation in a chosen area may be defined as the amount of the total yearly solar radiation available in that area, taking into account existing geographical constraints, ("suitability maps") that can be converted into electricity given the available solar power technologies. Technical potentials in GWh per year per cell at 1km resolution have been calculated by multiplying DNI (or GHI) for the technical parameters (performance, efficiency) related to CSP or PV, and for the available area. The available area was estimated using for: - CSP (grid connected) only cells with land suitability score > 302 (5% of total cells) - PV (grid connected) only cells with land suitability score > 299 (5% of total cells) - PV (off grid) only cells with land suitability score > 255 (5% of total cells)

The suitability maps, contain information on locations suitable for installation of the respective solar systems in accordance with the restrictive criteria adopted. Locations are evaluated according to their suitability for solar systems deployment according to topographical, legal, and social constraints, as well as factors that could facilitate or impede solar generation development. The study is conducted on a regional scale. The results can be used for identification of potential areas of interest for solar generation deployment, and as a support for integration between electricity grid expansion and off-grid electrification policies.

Data provides information about novel potential bio-energy crops which can or could be grown and processed in the future in the 15 ECOWAS countries. The project “Regional potential assessment of novel bio energy crops in fifteen ECOWAS countries” was started by the different project partners (ECREEE, UNIDO and QUINVITA) based on the need to make an overall assessment of a series of novel potential bio energy crops which can or could be grown and processed in the future in the 15 ECOWAS countries. This project fits in a broader strategic analysis of alternative energy needs and production, the key mandate of the mainfunding partner in the project, ECREEE. The project partners deliberately excluded conventional “bio energy” crops like sugarcane, oil palm, maize or sunflower as target crops, since they believed a sufficient knowledge base on the growing and processing crops was available globally and in the region. The novel bio energy crops chosen as targets for the study are a selection of crops for which either the agricultural knowledge is still limited and/or the use of the crop as an energy source is relatively new. The project team realizes that the list of selected crops is not an exhaustive list of potential bio energy crops and other novel crops may have a potential in the region. The project will develop a methodology that can be followed in the future for analyzing the potential of other crops and does not want to exclude this analysis in the future. The crops that have been selected for analysis in this project are: False Flax (Camelina sativa), Crambe (Crambe abyssinica), Cassava (Manihot esculenta), Castor bean (Ricinus communis), Cashew (Anacardium occidentale), Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), Jatropha curcas and sweet sorghum (sweet version of Sorghum bicolor).