BusinessDay 14 Feb 2018

Wednesday 14 February 2018
04 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
WEST AFRICA
ENERGY intelligence
Brief
power
Africa:
Financial services provider
invests $36m in solar developer
West Africa needs to brace up
for power disruption trends
ISAAC ANYAOGU
A
report by
Deloitte indicates
that
low levels of
power supply
among other things are
a deterrent for many intending
investors across
various sectors in Africa
especially in West Africa.
According to the report,
the power industry
continues to be bedevil
by challenges such as inadequate
generation capacity,
poor transmission
infrastructure, unskilled
Snapshot
488kWh
Estimated
average annual
electricity
consumption
for sub-Saharan
Africa
or low numbers in the
skilled workforce, poor
maintenance of existing
power stations, as well as
poor metering and billing
systems resulting in unreliable
supply, countries
will need to innovate to
achieve financially viable
growth in the sector.
The report further
shows that these challenges
coupled with a
changing landscape in
terms of technologies
and the costs thereof, are
giving rise to a number
of ‘disruptors’ in the sector,
inspiring a shift away
from traditional generation
practices and mixes,
methods of operations
and systems, funding
channels and models, as
well as the landscape of
players and stakeholders,
towards the application of
new and innovative technologies
and dynamics in
power infrastructure.
Those who know in the
industry acknowledge
that power and energy
sector is a critical driver of
growth and development
across the region adding
that in order to ensure
that the industry reaches
its full potential and addresses
the energy needs
of citizens, it is necessary
for West Africa region to
keep up to date with a
rapidly changing landscape.
Analysts observe a
growing push by some
West African countries to
deploy gas to fuel power
plants.
To them, with the low
cost of gas more latterly
compared to several
years ago, gas powered
plants have increasingly
become more competitive.
Connecting renewable
energy onto the grid
is becoming more affordable
as West Africa
is blessed with abundant
natural resources.
They maintain that it
stands to reason that it is
this dynamic that will ultimately
impact on and
alter the power landscape
in the region. While
West Africa has typically
lagged behind developed
markets in the uptake of
renewable energy, this
will become a feature of
the past as appetite for
renewable energy increases.
It is well documented
that countries in the region
have endured challenges
in the past with
providing their citizens
with electricity as a larger
percentage of people
across the region are still
without power, illustrating
that much still need to
be put in this space.
Analysts are of the
views that with the rise of
trends like decentralised
distributed generation,
closing that gap will become
more easily achievable.
According to them,
“Distributed generation
has the ability to bring
more citizens into the
energy fold through the
building of smaller power
stations at specific load
centres, rather than building
bigger, centralised stations
that need to transmit
power long distance”.
To them, this also assists
in reducing transmission
losses as power
would not need to be
evacuated over long distances.
The introduction
of multiple, smaller grids
can substantially assist
in transmitting power to
where it is needed, bringing
down the number of
people without electricity.
There are huge opportunities
in the decentralisation
of renewable energy
and businesses and
countries that embrace
the shift and invest in the
space will yield good returns.
Cape Town-based
investment management
business,
Inspired
Evolution, has struck a
deal to invest up to $36
million into solar developer
Alten RE Developments
Africa BV (Alten
Africa) and its 225MW
power portfolio of solar
projects in sub-Saharan
Africa. The $36million
investment will be made
through Inspired Evolution’s
Evolution II Fund.
Initially the partnership
will aim focus on 500MW of
advanced and pre-permitted
solar projects.
Among those will be
the 45.5MWp Hardap solar
project in Namibia, expected
to achieve financial
closure this month, the
51.5MWp Kesses 1 scheme
in Kenya and the 125MWp
Middle Band Solar One
project in Nigeria.
Europe:
Renewables overtake coal
for first time in Europe
Wind, sun and
biomass have
overtaken coal
as a source of
supply for Europe’s electricity
for the first time
in history, according to
a climate change policy
think tank, Sandbag. The
report entitled The European
Power Sector in 2017
showed that new renewables
generation sharply
increased in 2017.
Since Europe’s hydro
potential has been largely
Speaking about the newly-formed
collaboration,
Christopher Clarke, managing
partner at Inspired
Evolution said: “Together
we offer the aggregation of
regional and international
market knowledge, multidisciplinary
skills and credentials
with over 1 GW
of collective clean energy
track record.”
Inspired Evolution has
invested in 913MW of
clean energy infrastructure
projects.
tapped, the increase in
renewables comes from
wind, solar and biomass
generation, which rose by
12 percent in 2017 to 679
terawatt-hours, placing
these renewables sources
above coal generation for
the first time, the report
showed.
“This is incredible progress,
considering just five
years ago, coal generation
was more than twice that of
wind, solar and biomass,”
the report revealed.
According to the report,
Germany and the UK alone
contributed to 56 percent
of the growth in renewables
over the past three years.
“There is also a bias in
favor of wind: a massive 19
percent increase in wind
generation took place in
2017, due to good wind
conditions and huge investment
into wind plants.