Company Announcement: Interview with Paul Runge on African energy projects
This article has been supplied as a media statement and is not written by Creamer Media. It may be available only for a limited time on this website.
Interview with Paul Runge on African energy projects
To gain a better understanding of the state of the energy sector in Africa and the opportunities and projects currently available, I spoke with Paul Runge, MD at Africa Project Access who helped answer these key questions.
What is the state of the energy sector in Africa?
PR: AFRICA offers a trillion-dollar opportunity over the next decade, with a projected GDP of about about 6-7% annually. That means that our electricity generation, transmission and distribution capacity needs to match if not exceed the growth forecast. Unfortunately our current capacity lags behind the economic growth – however, there are a lot of plans in the pipeline to ensure that our future energy needs are met.
What opportunities are there for people who want to get involves in the power sector in Africa?
PR: There is a lot happening in the energy space in Africa right now – for instance, there is continued exploration for oil and gas, especially in the east African region. It is estimated that East Africa region holds 441.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 1.9 trillion cubic metres of gas have been found in Mozambique and that will go a long way for electricity generation for Sothern Africa.
I’m quite excited by the energy reforms taking place in Nigeria – the regulators are unbundling the utility and privatising the unbundled assets. The Nigerian government aims to increase its generation capacity ten fold by 2020. it also aims to ensure that 7% of is generated from renewable sources by 2025.
The Nigerian government also plans to increase its energy supply by ten fold by 2020.
Angola also represents another major opportunity, they have recently announced their $17-billion “energy access” drive to ramp up electricity generation capacity from the current 1 200 MW to 5 000 MW by 2016 through the rehabilitation of the country’s hydropower generation capacity.
Which projects stand out for you?
PR: In terms of hydro-generation projects, the Grand Inga 3 comes to mind. Its reportedly that that project has the potential to yield as much as 40 000 MW of emission-free capacity – almost the equivalent to South Africa’s current installed base. Should fracking ever see the light of day in South Africa, we could see 20-trillion cubic feet (tcf) being recovered. This would potentially contribute about R80-billion to South Africa.
If you want to learn more from Paul Runge and uncover his insights into African projects, then you need to be at Power and Electricity World Africa 2013.
This event is organised by Terrapinn.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation