Africa needs to transform its energy challenge into an opportunity with renewables and technology

The entire continent of Africa faces a major challenge today, and that is providing its population with stable, secure sources of power. About 600 million people in Africa do not have access to electricity. This power deficit isn’t just harming local populations, it’s also impacting Africa’s economic prospects. Supply lags demand, and in many countries across the continent, electricity outages are a daily occurrence. We have to drastically increase the amount of energy produced, both to power the continent’s industrial growth and, most importantly, support societal development. It’s as simple as having lighting available at night so children can study, or power for household appliances.

Governments are seeking answers. Some are investing in traditional hydrocarbons as they look to grow their generation capacity. But let me suggest a different idea. Africa is blessed with renewable energy sources. And modern renewable systems can be deployed quickly and at a lower cost than hydrocarbon energy sources to ensure that everyone has access to energy, especially in rural areas. Renewables aren’t just more cost-effective, but they’re also cleaner and sustainable.

We’ve seen this first-hand, with our Access to Energy projects throughout the region. One example of this is a project we undertook in the Egyptian village of El-Hutiyah that has provided both clean energy for the village and increase the amount of water available for agriculture. The village, which is located in the Farafra Oasis in Egypt’s El-Wadi El-Gedid Governorate, always used diesel generators to pump water from its wells. Today, the village, which is home to 900 people, runs on renewable power and uses electricity generated from solar panels to draw water from its wells and increase irrigable land by 600 percent, creating more farming jobs for the local community and reducing CO2 emissions by 47 tons per year.

Situated in Egypt’s Western desert, the Farafra Oasis is famous for its white desert sands. Due to its geography and geology, the area has over 100 wells, which are used to irrigate and cultivate the land. We designed and installed a micro-grid powered by solar panels which would provide the village and its water pumps with electricity throughout the year. Our team also extended the water pipes by one kilometer, from the wells to the field. The system uses EcoStruxure technology to monitor the electricity generation and water extraction is run by the village’s residents, who have also been trained on how to best maintain the equipment.

Thanks to the new solar-powered grid, the residents no longer need to use a 100-Kilowatt diesel-fueled generator. The engine consumed 10 liters of diesel an hour and was only able to extract enough water to irrigate 60 acres. Due to the new solar-powered micro-grid and piping, the pump will be able to extract enough water to irrigate 380 acres.

This is just one example of many small-scale projects that are changing rural lives for the better throughout the continent. The other issue which we need to tackle is that is national and regional electricity transmission. This is where technology can help. The ever-changing and rising energy demands of the 21st century necessitates modernization in our electric grids. This is especially true in Africa.

A smart grid is an intelligent digitized energy network that delivers energy in an optimal way, from source to consumption. Smart grids integrate information, telecommunication, and power technologies with the existing electricity system. It introduces a two-way dialogue where electricity and information can be exchanged between a utility and its customers. Smart grids are more efficient, more reliable, more secure and greener.

Why does this matter? There’s three key reasons why. Today, when power lines break or power plants can’t produce enough power, blackouts occur and that is a problem. At the same time, today’s grids often rely on a single power source and don’t provide detailed information on usage, making it difficult to manage. A smart grid is far more responsive to ever-changing environmental and load conditions. The amount of data generated and aggregated will be used to make the grid more reliable, optimize its efficiency and speed up the shift toward renewable energy transition. In effect, this is digitalization at its best, which will support the other two big electricity trends – population growth and decarbonization.

Smart grids have major implications for utilities, businesses and the public when it comes to how electricity is distributed and managed. First of all, smart grids are able to seamlessly integrate renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and hydro – both from large, utility-owned projects as well as prosumers, consumers and businesses who want to sell excess electricity that they’re producing through rooftop paneling.

Smart grids encourage the growth of renewable energy by using solutions like Distributed Energy Resources. The smart grid enables newer technologies to be integrated such as wind and solar. The power generation can now be distributed across multiple sources, so the system is more stable and efficient

Second, smart grids empower consumers and businesses with real-time information on their energy usage, allowing them to understand how they’re using energy, which is going to spur behavioral change (research shows that when consumers and businesses know exactly how much energy they consume, they’re likely to look for ways to reduce their energy use).

Third, the technology behind smart grids helps utility companies to reduce power surges and outages. One example of this is the self-healing grid we’ve developed with Stedin, one of the largest utilities in the Netherlands, for a self-healing grid solution in downtown Rotterdam. A blackout caused by a broken cable was resolved in 18 seconds thanks to the network automatically reconfiguring itself to resupply affected customers via another path. It could have taken hours to fix this fault if we were talking about a traditional grid.

We’re at a pivotal moment in the continent’s development. There’s no reason why Africa can’t be a renewable energy and technology pioneer. The investments made in these areas will pay off for decades to come. And we will be here to support this green energy transition, for the benefit of all.