Africa welcomes renewables revolution
Africa’s ability to provide electricity to its population has traditionally been judged on the ability of its governments to finance or attract private sector investment into new power plants.
Such discussion has generally missed the point. There is no benefit in funding centralised power plants, whether thermal or hydro, without parallel investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure to transport electricity to customers.
And all of this is virtually impossible to finance without a high degree of certainty that customers – whether business or residential – can afford to pay. Little progress on electrification was achieved for many decades because power companies were unable to produce electricity at a price that people could afford.
The lack of revenue made it difficult for utilities to maintain their networks, never mind expand them. Many were restricted to supplying electricity to the prosperous urban elite and companies with a proven ability to pay, particularly industrial consumers.
photo credit: futureatlas.com
