Could Solar Be The Answer To Africa’s Energy Crisis?

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

Electricity as we know it has been around for several centuries, and yet in twenty twenty four, there's still many parts of the world where people don't have access to it. Here in South Africa, where I'm speaking to you from, blackouts have eased slightly, but that's after years of intensified blackouts which crimped South Africa's economy. And we're not the only ones on the continent. Other African countries are dealing

It's free.

More and more nations see photovoltaic or PV energy as an opportunity to light up our.

For cut of breaking news. You guys, the sun does not shine twenty four hours a day.

But is the sun really the answer to power shortages on the continent. And there's also the question of climate change. How can the PV industry produce solar panels resistant to extreme weather conditions. That's what we're going to discuss today with Bloomberg's energy reporter Paul Berkhart. I'm Jennifer's Abasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent, driving the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide. Paul, thank

If you look across the entire continent and there's about population of around one point two billion, almost half of that population doesn't have access to electricity. And in the entire world that numbers about eight hundred million people who live in energy poverty, so the vast majority live in Africa. The amount of people without access to electricity has actually

Yeah, and that brings us to South Africa, of course, which we talk about quite a bit in this newsroom, but also when you talk about population not being able to serve the population Nigeria is also something that comes to mind there. How would you describe the Nigerian situation in particular.

Yeah, Nigeria is really the big one when it comes to poutages, and they kind of they laugh at South Africa in terms of the power cuts that we have here because I think it's just become the thing of everyday life there. So almost a third of African countries have more generator capacity than they do like an installed grid capacity, and that's because of the reliance on your

But she would think it would be a public good right to have electricity, especially when it comes to business, which is why it's surprising that there isn't more investment that has gone towards the sector.

Absolutely in South Africa, it's even been seen as a right.

You should have a right.

To electricity or the tools of development should be accessible to everybody. The utility that generates like almost all the electricity in South Africa's ESCAM, and it's dealt with a lot of different issues corruption, mismanagement depends on bailout and ESCOM itself believes that it's not charging enough for electricity, so most of all it's become prone to breakdowns. We've had record power cuts that again pale in comparison to Nigeria's, but they're still very bad.

Solar energy will be the dominant source of renewable energy by the end of the decade.

You know, Africa has ten thousands you go ups so love to show.

So then, Paul, that brings to the question about solar right, I mean, this could be a very obvious answer for these black opps, especially in many of these countries which have I think a majority of their days are with the sun out right. Why haven't we seen this tapped as much as it could be?

Yeah, I would say on the positive side, Africa has some of the best solar resources in the world. Namibia I think is on the very top of the list, and then there are a lot of other African countries that not only get strong solar power, but they get year round. But still it depends on what you're using it for austrial application, you can't necessarily do that with solar alone.

You would need kind of utility scale batteries. It is used.

Looking on a limited basis in a lot of places and in remote areas where you can charge your phone or radio kind of basic things, but it can also work for homes. And what we see in South Africa as there have been more power cuts is they've actually installed up to I think five gigawatts of solar panels at this point, and so if you have an inverter and you have solar panels, then you can basically get off the grid and you don't have to rely on ESCAM.

So then we're likely going to see more and more people finding their own ways to power their homes. Essentially, is that sort of the model that is really going to start spreading across the continent, because as you mentioned, there are some people who can afford it right to have solar panels at their homes, but their next door neighbor may not have that. Is it just going to be a broken up grid more and more.

Yeah, it's a huge issue. It's going to create even more inequality in a place like South Africa or Nigeria because those who can afford to generate their own power, they'll do that and they have been doing that, and those who can't, and for those who it'll become increasingly expensive.

That sort of leaves them.

In an area where they have to find solutions and there really aren't many coming up.

After the break, we'll be looking at the economic potential of the photovol take industry for Africa and other renewable energies.

We'll be right back.

It is a pretty exciting time to be in the solar industry. Our projections tell us that this year our industry is going to grow by about fifty two percent.

So we've seen a number of projects rising up over the years when it comes to solar power. But I wonder if you take a look at the continent, who would you say, which country would you say is leading the solar race.

As it stands, it's South Africa. So there was this program that started a little over a decade ago for private developers to build renewable power and it was very successful until it got blocked for political reasons, but still South Africa would be much bigger, but that could change pretty quickly. There are opportunities throughout the continent. This Morocco, Egypt and local manufacturing assembly takes hold, then that's really the accelerator, and so they've been looking for that in

But still the manufacturing, at least the local manufacturing you're talking about, has it yet gained enough team on the continent. Is that sort of the assessment you'd give it.

That's right, Yeah, I think you see maybe to a small degree, some assembly that takes place, but otherwise, like a lot of this just comes in imported.

What are we hearing, Paul from the public sector on this, because this ultimately is affecting these economies, right, Is there enough will to address the grid and the disparities really between who has and who doesn't have power.

We're starting to see a little more of a convergence.

We have some of.

These there's some foreign funding available and then that would in turn bring in more private investment, and so we're.

Starting to see more and more of that.

South Africa has had a very successful to some degree program to bring in more renewables, even going back to twenty eleven. But I think what's accelerated now is the shortages of electricity in South Africa, and so it's really in a way it could force more solution, but the funding just in large part isn't there. Their grants and their loans, but there are a lot of other political issues around whether to take some of this money and just the amount of money that's needed.

There's still quite quite a ways to go.

And that of course factors into the climate situation, right and the effect that is then having on the whole entire situation. I mean, I wonder in your time, since you've been covering this, if you still think that we are on the right track, even given sort of the climate emergencies and the extreme weather events that we're seeing across the continent.

That's a great point, because we see more and more of them here and Africa's ironically is like extremely exposed, more so than a lot of other places to the effects of climate change. And I think as people experience that, then that firsthand experience becomes more of a motivator to change things.

But still we see these changes.

When we see some of the issues around for example, switching from coal for South Africa, and what's going to happen with the mining industry and what happens with those jobs and where do these jobs in the renewable industry, where will they come from?

That needs to be explained. You know.

Again, we'll see the private sector really be able to source the.

Power and the electricity that they need.

But there's a much bigger issue in a country like South Africa, for example, more than sixty million people, the vast majority are going to be trying to figure out what they're going to do about getting electricity.

What about it being tapped potentially and I mean solar paul it being tapped potentially as an opportunity for African government. You mentioned how plentiful the resources are, right, Are we at the point yet where some governments can potentially sell their solar access or their solar power to other parts of the world or are recent on early days we.

See opportunities even within Africa.

There's some countries that are looked at exporting electricity the way South Africa used to really and now they need all the power that they can get.

But there are opportunities.

There's certainly opportunities in Morocco and other countries that are so close to Europe.

In the North African desert. One country is embracing this bright feature. Morocco has just switched on the world's largest solar power plant. Soon energy from these skies will be exported to the richest economies in the world, with the potential to transform the lives of millions.

And even in terms of green hydrogen and these other energy options that are coming up, you absolutely can export those things. And yes, the governments can look at this as an opportunity and they could find some success. Then maybe it has quite a bit of discussions going on about their green hydrogen projects for example. But I think even if you look at energy resources in terms of oil and gas, what African countries still need if they're exporting these things are programs at home. What is this

Yourself, absolutely, and that's what the citizens are waiting for as well. Paul Burkhart, thanks so much Paul for joining us.

Thank you.

As Paul mentioned, the resources are there, the need for the population is as well. What's most pressing at this point is the funding and the will to commit to the solar project's long term as they do take a long time. As Paul mentioned there. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley and Leon Wadrago. Don't forget to follow and review this show wherever you usually get your podcast. I'm Jennifer's Abasaja. Thanks as always for listening.