Offgrid tech has bigger role to play in African electrification – PwC
With two-thirds of the world’s population likely to still be without electricity by 2030 – despite the newly agreed post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to energy – a new approach is needed that better recognises the role offgrid technology can play, a new PwC report showed.
Much-needed faster progress could be achieved if national energy policies adopted a more comprehensive approach to energy access, embracing the new starting points for energy provided by standalone renewable technology and minigrids, said PwC Africa deals power and utility leader John Gibbs.
The need to wait for grid extensions to unlock electrification for the 634-million people without electricity was “being turned on its head” by new technological possibilities, highlighted the PwC report, which was titled ‘Electricity beyond the grid: accelerating access to sustainable power for all'.
“The combination of centralised top-down grid extension with decentralised demand-driven bottom-up strategies, in the form of minigrids and especially standalone solutions, will speed up the increase in electrification levels for Africa,” added PwC senior manager and energy policy and regulation expert Georg Baecker.
The report pointed to technological advances rapidly enabling options beyond the grid, with declining solar technology costs stimulating the growth of standalone home systems and battery storage technology, which was fast evolving to play a significant role in utility-scale solar power storage.
“Together with access to mobile technology and mobile payment systems for microloans, a new era has arrived for beyond-the-grid electrification,” he said.
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