ENERGY • DEVELOPMENT • ENVIRONMENT
Review
Review of the Africa Energy Yearbook 2011
"The Africa Energy Yearbook 2011 continues to examine the critical role of the energy sector in Africa and how Africa will fare in the unfolding environmental debate. The holding of COP17 in Durban, South Africa, November 28 to December 9, 2011, will indeed add poignancy to the discussions for Africa. And hopefully the success of the Football World Cup will be emulated. Success would be the transfer of substantial funds for the development of African energy projects that would be less environmentally corrosive than would otherwise be the case. The detail of the issue is set out in an article by Guido Schmidt-Traub in the chapter The Power of Climate. The question of energy poverty and climate change is tackled by Teodoro Sanchez, and Jonathan Coony and Alexander Alusa consider a model to expand the provision of clean energy.
Common to all is the view that “energy access” is not a vague objective, it is an implacable imperative. It may not be a stated MDG, but all acknowledge the debilitating nature of energy poverty. An impression that seems to seep through the observations is that Africa cannot afford to wait for developed countries to provide long promised support. If one believes that CDM is the answer to Africa’s energy problems, think again. Africa needs to put in place its own practical development initiatives. Ralph Sims, Khalil Elahee, Christine Heuraux and Simon Rolland give their thoughts in the chapter Practical Power. Increasing access to renewable energy could be considered a practical way of delivering power, and with this in mind Lucy Baker tries to demystify the South African REFIT policy, and Andrew Gray considers the efficacy of feed-in tariffs.
African biofuels are considered a hot potato by many oil majors, in the face of swings in international policy, particularly by the EU. Is the impression of an industry corralling production of non-edible cash crops primarily for export to the bloated West an accurate one? Rodney Cooke, Vineet Raswant and Meghan Sapp bring some welcome reason to the discussion in the chapter Fueling Development. In the same chapter, Latsoucabé Fall examines the prospects of a growing role for natural gas in Africa’s energy mix, and Avhapfani Tshifularo considers the effort made by the South African petroleum industry to improve air quality.
Putting in place policies, developing procedures, and identifying successful strategies will contribute to project development. When examining the African power sector, the Chinese presence must be considered, and their success in building affordable new capacity on time should not be underestimated or dismissed as being a “loss leader” in their quest to secure resources. Both Neil Upton and David McDonald refer to the China factor in the chapter The Power of Policy. McDonald makes assertions beyond the impact of China that many will disagree with, but they demonstrate the diversity of opinion that discussion of the African energy sector generates. Africa has huge hydropower resources, and it is in the development of these that China has been particularly successful. But despite the potential for hydropower in many African countries, a number of African governments have expressed their commitment to develop a nuclear power industry. Latsoucabé Fall discusses how feasible this is, and whether policies have been modified in the wake of Fukushima. The EU has recognized the importance of energy for development and formed the Africa-EU Energy Partnership through which funds are made available to improve access to modern energy services for rural and peri-urban areas. The EU paper covers both policy and finance, and introduces the importance of securing funding for power projects.
In the final chapter Financing Power, Dave Smit, Pankaj Gupta, Katherine Baragona and Youssef Arfaoui examine funding from the perspective of DFIs, whilst Dario Musso, Daniel Zinman, Paul Eardley-Taylor, Nicholas Green and Omar Vajeth consider it from a commercial bank’s viewpoint."
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