– How big is the energy deficit in sub-Saharan Africa? How far has urban and rural electrification progressed in the region?
– Despite the efforts and investments made in recent years, access to electricity remains a challenge for some African countries.
According to Dr. Kevin Kariuki, Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate Change & Green Growth, African Development Bank, in 2019, the African Development Bank reported that an additional 96 million African households had gained access to electricity between 2015 and 2019 and between 2019 and 2024, this trend has been sustained.
Despite this encouraging progress, almost 590 million Africans still lack electricity access, according to the International Energy Agency and achieving universal access goals under SDG7 still requires greater and swifter efforts to meet the demands of Africa’s growing population.
As you know, Northern African countries have nearly achieved universal access.
For sub-saharan counties :
- West African countries are in good track.
- Southern African countries driven by some countries known as power houses are progressing as well.
- It appears that the least energy developed sub-regions are East and Central Africa. With big infrastructure projects taking shape across East Africa, developing a reliable power sector is now more important than ever.
In Central Africa, from Chad to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR), countries are stepping up initiatives to overcome this energy poverty. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have reached 90 % electrification rate. Some countries as Rwanda and Kenya are targeting universal access for 2025-2030.
Globally, in all sub-Saharan Africa counties, the gap between urban and rural electrification is being bridged with the combined efforts of all the governments and the partner institutions (Multilateral and bilateral Investment institutions: AfDB, World Bank, EU, KFW, JICA, MCC, USAID-Power Africa, working groups of Africa-Russia summits, and Forum of China-African Cooperation etc.).
– Today, the only African country using nuclear energy is South Africa, where two power units were built in the mid-1980s. Another such country will soon be Egypt. Which African countries may be on this list in the coming years?
– A third of the almost 30 countries currently considering nuclear power are in Africa. Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan have already engaged with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess their readiness to embark on a nuclear programme. Algeria, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia are also mulling the possibility of nuclear power.
African countries should also explore the posibility to develop power station with small modular reactors for more practical use of nuclear power. The region could follow the example of Russia, where Rosatom built the world’s first floating small modular reactors (SMRs) and will commission two land-based small modular reactors by the end of the decade.
– In the US, China and Europe, off-grid solar generation is becoming increasingly popular. This is about the use of photovoltaic panels to supply electricity to private homes. Has this trend reached Africa? Will off-grid solar generation become one of the solutions to the energy shortage in the region?
The off-grid generation has been developing in Africa since end of the 70s, but it began with diesel generation. It is to say that the off-grid generation is not so new for African countries. The most populous country in Africa, Nigeria, has initiated several solar power projects to improve electricity access, particularly in off-grid areas. The Solar Power Naija initiative is one of the most notable, aiming to provide 5 million homes with solar electricity by 2025.
The off-grid solar generation is also promoted in many African countries. According to IRENA Renewable Energy Finance Report, Sub-Saharan African countries attracted 65% of the world’s off-grid renewable energy investments over 2007-2019, with investments concentrated especially in East Africa. Solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind power consolidated their dominance of the finance landscape in 2013-2018, attracting, respectively, 46% and 29% of global investments in renewables. According to the agreed strategy of African institutions to achieve universal access, all solutions will be considered, including off-grid generation.
However, аt the previous Regional to Global conference held by the Global Energy Association in Ethiopia in February 2023 I made a point that solar energy may play an important role for supplying electricity to households in Africa, but yet for industrial purposes in different regions we need to grow the capacity of gas-fired and hydropower plants.
– In recent years, several large hydropower projects have been completed in Africa: in Nigeria, the Zungeru hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 700 MW was commissioned, and in Zambia, the Kafue Gorge Lower hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 750 MW was launched. Which other countries in the region have great potential for hydropower development?
Ethiopia has invested heavily in expanding its electric power grid to support the country’s growing economy and improve electricity access. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), with a capacity of 6,450 MW, is central to Ethiopia’s efforts. Today, Ethiopia is the leading net exporter of hydroelectricity in East Africa and has links with Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya and, soon, Somalia. In West Africa, Guinea, Nigeria and Ghana are the leading countries with large hydropower plants.
Currently, hydropower accounts for 17% of the electricity generation in Africa on average. In some countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia, the share of hydropower in electricity generation exceeds 80%. This share may potentially increase to more than 23% by 2040,
– Overcoming energy shortages frequently encounters challenges related to the power grid infrastructure. To what extent is there a need to upgrade existing and construct new power lines in Africa?
The great challenge of development in Africa is how to reconcile the exponential increase in population generating new demands for energy, sustained economic growth in several large mining countries and the need to develop a local processing industry for real wealth creation.
As a result, utilities are always struggling with the need to upgrade existing power lines and to build new lines with the conformity to advanced technologies.
Most state-owned electric utilities in Africa today are unable to secure the financial resources needed to implement required infrastructure projects.
Despite this situation, African governments supported by donor founds have been implementing lastly many infrastructure projects to reinforce and expand the electricity networks.
The Maghreb committee of electricity was created in 1985 and the SAPP in 1995.
Early 2000, APUA interacted with the regional economic commissions and governments to organise the WAPP, CAPP and EAPP.
APUA coordinates the Forum of Power Pools towards the Single Electricity Market and is a key player for the development of the Continental Master Plan of electricity networks initiated by the African Development Bank and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).
Moreover, regional interconnectors and associated national feeder lines are being developed with the support of African Development Bank as leading institution as the AfDB counts Regional members (54 African countries) and non-regional members (other 29 countries from Europe, America and Asia) and other financial institutions.
