Powering Africa: Unlocking Opportunities for Energy Development

Southern Africa faces an energy crisis characterized by a lack of electricity access and a coal-dominated energy mix. The document argues that overcoming this requires a combination of regional cooperation to manage hydropower resources and the deployment of decentralised solutions like mini-grids for rural areas, while addressing systemic barriers such as poor project preparation and inadequate regulatory frameworks.

• The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region suffers from significant energy insecurity, with 68% of residents lacking electricity access and a power mix heavily reliant on coal, particularly in South Africa.
• Investment in electricity generation has been obstructed by several systemic factors, including electricity tariffs that do not reflect actual costs, a lack of standardised power purchase agreements, poor project preparation, and insufficient institutional, regulatory, and policy frameworks.
• To achieve universal energy access and security, the region must utilize both regional cooperation via the Southern African Power Pool to manage climate-vulnerable hydropower and decentralised solutions like mini- and micro-grids for rural areas where grid extension is not viable.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2018). Powering Africa: Unlocking Opportunities for Energy Development. https://www.sei.org/publications/powering-africa-unlocking-opportunities-energy-development/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Powering Africa: Unlocking Opportunities for Energy Development. 2018. https://www.sei.org/publications/powering-africa-unlocking-opportunities-energy-development/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Powering Africa: Unlocking Opportunities for Energy Development |date=25 May 2018 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/powering-africa-unlocking-opportunities-energy-development/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2018powering, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Powering Africa: Unlocking Opportunities for Energy Development}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2018}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/powering-africa-unlocking-opportunities-energy-development/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }