It was a bullish time for the African power industry, particularly in the area of renewable-energy power generation, said business intelligence services provider Cross-border Information editorial director Jon Marks at the 2014 Power & Electricity World Africa conference, held in Johannesburg, last month.

He added that some initiatives, such as South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), were helping the continent to achieve some of the aims outlined in the Africa Union (AU)-European Union (EU) Energy Partnership (AEEP) 2020.

The AEEP is a long-term strategic framework for cooperation between the AU and the EU on energy issues and aims to create a political platform to share know-how, connect resources and work to enhance and coordinate energy policies within Africa, and between the unions.

The access to electricity targets outlined in the AEEP include at least 250-million people in Africa having access to modern and sustainable energy, which will subsequently enable them to benefit from basic services such as healthcare, education, water and communication. This access will also provide safe and sustainable energy services for households.

The AEEP also aims to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in Africa by building 10 000 MW of new hydropower facilities and taking into consideration social and environmental standards; installing at least 5 000 MW of wind power capacity and 500 MW of all forms of solar energy capacity; and tripling the capacity of other renewables, such as geothermal and modern biomass.

According to Cross-Border Information’s African Energy consultancy unit’s ‘African Energy Atlas 2013’ report, renewables are no longer regarded as only offering solutions to isolated and mini-grid electrification challenges and providing supporting energy sources for fossil-fuel-powered grids.

“Recent, more sophisticated plans incorporated a substantial renewables component into national frameworks, as a result of the falling price of renewable energy, the rising and fluctuating price of fossil fuels, and the increasing possibility of trading electricity between groups of countries,” African Energy explains.

Marks noted that the increasing levels of regulatory and investment certainty in the renewable- energy sector were encouraging several energy operators to enter the African market and offer the continent innovative technologies and solutions.

African Energy’s report states that the first round of the REIPPPP, for which projects are scheduled to be commissioned by the third quarter of this year, will add 1 416 MW of power to the South African grid.

The consultancy unit highlights that this will mark a significant milestone for the renewables sector in the country, owing to these projects coming on stream in two-and-a-half years and being financed mostly through private commercial sources.

“If the second-round REIPPPP projects are also successfully commissioned by the end of this year, government and its private-sector partners will have increased renewable-energy capacity, from negligible levels in 2011 to 2 460 MW – that is, in the same amount of time that State-owned power utility Eskom will take to commission 100  MW of wind power at its Sere wind farm project, near Vredendal, in the Western Cape,” states African Energy.