Accelerating Africa’s Energy Transition

.The continent can benefit more from energy transition – Vice president

..as  transition will cost an estimated $100 billion annually between 2020 and 2040.

UGO AMADI

 

Africa’s energy transition topped the agenda at the recently concluded Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja. As the world’s youngest continent, Africa is expected to be home to nearly 2.5 billion people by 2050. Eighty percent of them will live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where less than half of all people have access to electricity today, and as little as 16% have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies.

 

The continent’s energy transition is a huge task and will cost an estimated $100 billion annually between 2020 and 2040.

 

While the developed world clamours for Africa to accelerate the development of its massive renewable energy sources, Africa must also be given time to transition and allowed to use its natural gas as a transition fuel, just like it is the case in Germany, as well as Europe. What is acceptable for Germany and Europe must be acceptable for Africa.

 

Industry experts, decision-makers, regulators and key government officials waded into deliberations on the energy transition, including how to build a sustainable energy future for Africa, deregulation, utilizing gas as a transition fuel, sectoral challenges, local content, the role of National Oil Companies in the transition and implementing the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act, amongst others.

 

Giving a keynote address at the event, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Pro Yemi Osinbanjo, explained that Africa can be much more effective in developing its own agenda and energy mix. He said: “There are two existential crisis for us Africans; global warming and energy poverty, which results in millions of our people being poor. There’s no question at all for us in this part of the world that both must go simultaneously so that people can have access to power. That is why gas must remain an important transition fuel. We must think in both terms.”

 

Osinbajo noted  that African countries will benefit more in the call for energy transition if they stop seeing themselves as the victims and take advantage of the huge inherent potential to build a future that it truly deserves.

 

Africa, he noted, has all the required natural resources to determine its paths towards cleaner energy.

 

Prof Osinbajo also noted that Africa cannot accept some of the position as have been offered by some of the advanced countries that gas is one of the energy products that should be defunded or that gas projects should be defunded in order to enable a faster progress towards renewable transition.

 

 

The VP said that African countries would benefit more in the search of cleaner energy and should begin to determine how the goal could be achieved.

 

 

Osinbajo argued that the quest for a green energy ought to begin from low emission countries, which are mostly in Africa.

 

“In the last few years, I have had the privilege of chairing our government’s energy transition working group and in that capacity, in working with a strong inter-ministerial team, several energy sector players, many of whom are in this room, it has become increasingly clear to me that Nigeria has a crucial and strategic role in delivering the sustainable energy future that Africa and indeed the world must have in the next few years.

 

“But what Is that future? Let me say first what it is not.

 

“It must not be a future where Africa remains at the bottom of the food chain in a brave new world of sustainable energy, certainly not. But we must admit that today, we have the largest number of individuals without access to power, the highest number of people without access to clean cooking fuel, and we need rapid industrialisation to get millions of our people out of poverty. And we must do all of this without worsening the global warming situation.

 

“It is our nation and continent that will drive the next stage of global economic progress. And we can do so by becoming the first truly growing civilization by first recognising the opportunity and intentionally developing all our potential around our natural resources, including the natural gas of course, solar and bio fuels.

 

“We must in particular leverage on our renewable energy potential, work actively on green technologies, carbon removal. And we have a young and resourceful workforce that can enable that to happen very quickly. And quite frankly, it is the energy sector working with the government that can muster the human and material resources to move the nation on this kind of ambition.

 

“There is no question in my mind that Africa is the place where we can sensibly and economically go ahead with green civilization. Nowhere else has that potential. The reason why that is so is because we have the lowest emissions today compared to everywhere else in the world, and because possibly, we have some of the largest natural resources that will aid that journey, we can do much more, and we can be much more effective in developing our own agenda for a green future that will benefit the world much more than starting that journey elsewhere.

 

“We must not see Africa as the victims and we must not continue to input them as victims in this whole process of the journey towards sustainable energy future, we can in fact become the principal players,” he said.

 

According to him, gas, for Africa, is the future.“The reason why gas is the future is not just because we have such huge amounts of gas reserve, it is also because it is possibly the only clean cooking option for us. And clean cooking is an important aspect of the entire clean energy agenda.

 

“It is crucial, we cannot, and we will not, we in this part of the world cannot do without it. LPG is crucial for clean cooking. Even when we talk about renewable energy, we think in terms of LPG and all the other three cooking options.

 

“The first of course is global warming and all its implications, the second is the lack of energy access; the energy poverty that we have which also results in millions of our people being poor.

 

“So there is no question at all that for us in this part of the world, both must go simultaneously. We must think in terms of transition to cleaner fuel; renewable energy, and also access to power so that we can have access to development for our people and that’s why many of us in this room will agree that gas must remain a transition fuel.

 

“Our energy transition plan is bold and innovative, it calls for the ramping up of solar cells and we are going to be doing about 5.3 gigawatts per year until 2060, that is the plan, and we think that this plan is achievable. The production of over 6 billion litres of bio fuels annually to green as it is the path to e-mobility and the transition of at least 2 million Nigerian households annually to cleaner cooking fuel such as LPG, and electricity every single year,” he added.

 

 

In a session themed ‘Building the Energy for Tomorrow’, Dr. Ainojie Alex Irune, Chief Operating Officer, Oando Energy Resources & Executive Director, Oando PLC stressed the need for Africa to act fast and act now. 

 

Sharing his thoughts on creating a sustainable energy future, Dr. Irune said: “For the first time in the history of the world, we are going to see energy growth and demand outstrip average economic growth across the world, in a time where the energy mix is still being contended; contended because the primarily developed world has a view of what this mix should be, and Africa has a different perspective. 

 

Against the backdrop of our youth population, poverty index and intra-African collaboration, we need to get impatient about delivering value and development to our people. The molecule of oil in our ground must be excavated with urgency; I’m talking about oil, we must create the balance sheet that will fund the transition. The PIA has come to make that journey a little less tortuous and whilst the PIA is not perfect, it is a starting point; but also understand that the PIA can quickly become obsolete because of the pace of change.”

 

 NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of Africa Energy Chamber, in a session themed ‘ Security vs Energy Transition- Global Perspective for a Sustainable Energy Future’, explained why the continent needs to leverage its immediate resources to eliminate energy poverty. He said, “Africa is a gas continent. I wish we had discovered gas before we discovered oil. We are in Nigeria, Africa’s gas giant, and must continue working towards creating an enabling environment and incentivising participation in the gas value chain.” He further called on the government to cut the red tape and sign all the pending gas deals that could spur the country to a sustainable energy future. 

 

Speaking on gas as a transition fuel Dr. Irune said; “We all recognize that gas is a transition fuel. However, we are the leaders, because Nigeria is a gas province with a little bit of oil and by investing in this gas and developing it, it will be the lever for developing our industry, kickstarting our economy and taking us into the age where we can genuinely compete with the rest of the world.”

 

Delegates across various panel sessions agreed that whilst Africa explores its exponential gas reserves as part of its energy mix, renewables must also be explored. African countries are well-positioned to meet their energy needs through renewable and cleaner sources compared to the continent’s industrialised counterparts. African countries have a unique abundance of untapped energy potential: the continent receives 325 days of sunlight per year, exploits less than seven percent of its hydroelectric potential and no more than two percent of geothermal capacity. As of today, renewables represent only 20 percent of the electricity generation mix. The reducing cost of renewable energy technologies, including storage, presents a real opportunity for Africa to move towards a clean energy pathway.

 

The His Excellency Prof. Yemi Osinbajo buttressed the potential of renewable in Africa’s energy mix. He said: ” If you are going to do anything regarding a green energy future, you should start from a low emission base, which is here in Africa. We have the natural resources to do so. If we focus on our strengths today, we can move quickly. We can build the energy for tomorrow first by recognising the opportunity early and developing all the potential around our natural resources, including natural gas, solar, and biofuels. We must, in particular, leverage our renewable energy potential.”

 

Speaking on the continent’s renewable energy potential, Dr. Irune said: “On the continent, we lack skill, that is why 2% of the total funds available for renewable projects make its way to Africa. We are approximately 30% of the world’s population. Again, another person is defining our future. We have everything it takes to build the energy for tomorrow. We have the oil to create the balance sheet, we have the gas for the transition, we have renewable energy, the sun and all the other renewable sources to compete in that renewable space and develop bankable projects. Most importantly, renewable is interesting, we have to figure out how to capture and save renewable energy and that requires precious metals, which we also have. So, if you look at the energy value chain, we shouldn’t ask for anything from the rest of the world but just be impatient in developing what we have.”

 

The five-day event ended on Thursday, April 20, 2023, with over 500 delegates in attendance. In his remarks the His Excellency Prof. Yemi Osinbajo said: “We must not see Africa as the victim, we are not the victim, we can in fact become the principal players, it is our nation and our continent that will drive the next stage of global economic progress and we can do so by becoming the first truly green civilization in the world.”