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Abstract: The paper investigates how renewable technologies could promote the transition towards a sustainable energy production in developing nations. Based on two different developing nations in terms of economic, technological and institutional structure: South Africa and Senegal, we implemented scenarios in a bottom-up PowerPlan model in order to analyze the transition toward a sustainable electric production. Two scenarios have been considered: a business-as-usual (BAU) and a hybrid renewable energy (HRE) scenario. In the first scenario (BAU) we assume that the electricity demand is entirely satisfied by an increase of the investment in the current supply structure based on fossil-fuel energy source. Whereas in the renewable energy scenario, we assume 20% and 30% of the electricity supply being generated from renewable resources by 2020 and 2030 respectively. Focusing on wind and solar photovoltaic technologies, our results show the cost-competitiveness of renewable energy deployment in South Africa. In the case of Senegal, our results show that fossil-fuel resource remains the most competitive to generate electricity in the nation during the next coming years as long as environmental advantages of renewable resource are not considered. Our research indicates that in the case of a centralized electricity supply option, both a scale effect and a learning improvement could eventually strengthen the competitiveness of renewable technology deployment in developing nations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Energy yield simulation of vertical bifacial PV array in 12 European locations. • Comparison with a conventional PV array (monofacial, equator-oriented, tilted). • Evaluation of market revenues based on historic day-ahead market prices. • Evaluation of LCOE and net present value. • Evaluation of system cost reduction from a macroeconomic perspective for Germany. Thanks to the two diurnal generation peaks, vertical bifacial photovoltaic power plants (VBPV) with a north-south axis represent an option to meet the challenges of a mismatch between electricity demand and the generation profile of conventional photovoltaic systems (C-PV). Despite this promising characteristic, it is hardly possible to assess the technical and economic properties of VBPV on the basis of existing studies. The present work is a contribution to close this gap. Among other things, the conducted analyses included electricity generation, market revenues, levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) and the cost-reducing effect of VBPV in a national electricity system. C-PV was used as a benchmark in all analyses. Electricity generation was simulated at twelve European sites in four countries. It has been found that above a latitude of 50° VBPV generates more electricity than C-PV. Due to the higher investments, VBPV had higher LCOE at all locations investigated. The results also showed that VBPV can generate higher revenues in electricity markets with a high share of C-PV capacity, but that these additional revenues are not yet sufficient to compensate for the higher investments. With an optimising electricity market model, it was also found that VBPV can contribute to reducing system costs in an electricity system with high shares of C-PV capacity. Against the background of the increasing importance of PV for the electricity supply of most European countries, these findings are of particular importance. In summary, it can be said that VBPV has significant potential at both the business and macro-economic level and that decision makers should promote the market entry of this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]