Although Southern Africa faces the global challenge of meeting the triple bottom line of energy affordability, security of supply and reducing its carbon footprint, it is rich in natural energy resources, which must be harnessed to deal with these and other energy challenges.

This was according to Lord Mayor of London Alderman Fiona Woolf, who spoke at law firm ENS Africa’s Southern African Regional Energy Security Summit, in Johannesburg, last month.

Despite the region having ample energy resources, more investment in solar energy was needed, she said.

Another challenge was access to electricity in the African region, as Woolf noted that only 24% of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had access to electricity, 36% in East Africa and 44% in West Africa.

Further, electricity tariffs were below production costs and regulatory and institutional frameworks were absent.

“As Africa develops and more people rise out of poverty to the middle class, the need for elec-tricity is set to grow. The big debate is whether gas is a game changer for the region. The City of London can provide finance for the region and we are seeing new forms of long-term finance emerging. The players in the City of London are collaborating to share ideas and invent new products as the opportunities in the Southern Africa region are great,” Woolf said.

Audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG Africa infrastructure and major projects CEO and market leader Klaus Findt suggested that, to offset the energy trilemma, new-generation assets needed to be built in the Southern Africa region.

He added that there were many energy investment opportunities for private investors.

South African sustainable development organisation CEO Belynda Petrie said energy security in the region depended significantly on coal and suggested that electricity be generated using hydropower, which was relatively untapped.

However, she warned that water scarcity was also a challenge.

“Resource scarcity is a threat to energy in the region; therefore, regional planning needs to be supported. The opportunity lies in harnessing rich resources in a way that does not create stranded assets,” Petrie stated.

ENS Africa projects department director Eric le Grange said a stable electricity grid was funda-mental to energy security and needed to be properly developed and maintained.