Access, affordability and reliability are the key factors that will determine the future of the African energy sector. This was the message that emerged from the first day of the Africa Energy Indaba taking place in Johannesburg.

Speaking at the first plenary session of the day George Njenga, Regional Executive- Sub Sahara Africa at GE Power, outlined the challenges facing the continent and how they would shape solutions and innovations target at Africa.

Njenga said the future of the energy sector in Africa would be determined by addressing the basics of African energy security which includes, providing access to energy, making it affordable and ensuring that it is reliable.

“These are factors that we don’t think about but the landscape in Africa is very different so we can sit up here and talk about regional integration and continental transmission networks but we need to cultivate solutions for an African reality and the reality is that there are still too many people without access to electricity,”Njenga said.

Diverse generation opportunities

Turning to the future energy mix for Africa Njenga noted that the content was already fortunate to have a diverse range of energy generation sources currently in use.

“West Africa is naturally rich in gas which is why this forms a large part of their energy generation model at present, in the East countries like Kenya have relied on hybrid energy models and in South Africa there has traditionally been a heavy reliance on fossil fuels,” he explained.

Njenga added that it would be critical for countries to look at what they are currently doing and find ways to supplement that and share regions to counteract any factors that could affect the reliability of power supply.

Clean coal and renewable energy

Looking at the South Africa’s reliance on coal Njenga noted that the country would not be able to replace its reliance on fossil fuels overnight. “The elephant in the room is how we continue to pursue coal. We need to think about this differently and the reality is that cleaner coal technologies are a possible solution. The answer for us is to transition”

“We need to work towards embracing renewables because we are well endowed with these resources so it’s really not a question of this or that but rather how we consume these things more efficiently and more economically to create jobs and protect our resources,” he said.