DAKAR, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- There is tremendous potential of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) locked in sub-Saharan Africa, said a report released by the World Bank on Wednesday.

    The report "Low-carbon Energy Projects for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Unveiling the Potential, Addressing the Barriers" was released during the Africa Carbon Forum in Dakar, Senegal, on September 3-5.

    "This report shows the huge technical potential for clean energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa," said the report's leading author Christophe de Gouvello, World Bank senior energy specialist.

    "If properly integrated with conventional sectoral assistance already provided by donors, the new climate change-related international financial instruments can boost energy development in Africa," he said.

    This report presents the first attempt of this kind to inventory the potential of clean energy projects in these African countries that could receive supports from CDM/Carbon Finance and possibly the new Climate Investment Funds.

    The World Bank study team estimated a technical potential of more than 3,200 low carbon energy projects. If fully implemented, this estimated technical potential could provide more than 170 GW of additional power-generation capacity, more than twice of the region's current installed capacity.

    The additional energy provided would equal roughly four times of the region's current energy production.

    "Although we did the technical analysis, the economic analysis would still need to be done on a project by project basis," said Massamba Thioye, senior energy and environment specialist and co-author of the report.

    He said, "The pipeline of similar projects in other regions shows us that such projects are often economically viable when carbon revenues are added."

    The authors documented the formidable barriers that now hold Africa back on the CDM. It is essential to fill the regulatory and logistics gaps that bar clean energy projects from access to energy markets. Market access requires appropriate infrastructure planning and policies to overcome logistics bottlenecks.

    Among the barriers also were that technical information on mature clean technologies must be appropriately disseminated; local skills required to run mature, clean technologies must be developed.

    "Moreover, the energy deficit in sub-Saharan Africa is enormous," said Dana Rysankova, senior energy specialist in the World Bank's Africa Region.

    According to her, the total generation capacity in Africa is very low, with 500 million people in the sub-Saharan Africa lacking access to electricity.

    She said it is estimated that the African countries need to spend at least six percent of their GDP on energy sector over the next 10 years to keep up their economic growth.

    The Africa Carbon Forum, the first on the continent, will combine a carbon investment Trade Fair, a conference and policy forum as well as targeted capacity building on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol for climate change officials and carbon market participants in Africa.