Ainojie 'Alex' Irune on CNN's Connecting Africa with Eleni Giokos

The COO, OER discusses sustainable solutions to achieving energy independence and driving economic prosperity on the African continent with Eleni Giokos on CNN's Connecting Africa.

Eleni Gikos (CNN Connecting Africa Moderator): The wind is alive with potential here in Tiksikama and the key to unlocking economic prosperity on the continent means access to reliable and affordable electricity. But with only 43% of the continent connected to electricity, finding ways to propel the continent towards energy independence means finding sustainable solutions.

Chiboni Evans (CEO, South African Electrotechnical Export Council): We have to use the resources that we have in a very meaningful and reliable and sustainable way because they will have to carry this continent forward.

Eleni to Chiboni: We keep talking about increasing into Africa trade can that actually be done without electrifying the continent?

Chiboni: Unfortunately, no it can’t, you cannot trade you cannot manufacture goods and services unless you’ve got the power to power your factories. Even in terms of supply chains you are using the internet, you are using digital supply chains, you need the internet that also needs electricity. So, without electrification, we cannot do anything. The other thing that we also need to bear in mind in terms of power generation is that in terms of financing power projects the key funders for power project are looking at clean energy.

Eleni: According to the international renewable energy agency, sub-Sahara Africa attracted 65% of the world’s off-grid renewable energy investments between 2007 to 2019, with hydropower leading technology followed by solar and wind power.

Eleni to Chiboni: So let’s also talk about what opportunities they are for African businesses?

Chobani: In addition to making sure that African companies are engaged in those projects we need to make sure that young upcoming entrepreneurs are also brought into the supply chain so they could be component manufactories

Eleni to Chiboni: We are talking big money here right that’s the thing these projects needs dip pockets.

Chiboni: But the supply chain into those projects can be in your SNMEs so what happens big companies like Trans-Africa projects actor who are South Africa born and breed companies we align them with smaller SNMEs so when they go look at the projects they’ll take those small companies with them because, in 20, 30, 50 years those SNMEs are your next multinational.

Eleni: The African continental free trade area agreement which went into effect in January this year has the potential to significantly impact the energy sector. By encouraging cross border energy diversification, for example, the agreement looks to create a continent-wide single market for goods and services.

Eleni to Chiboni: do you think that that’s going to change the playing field and how we deal with electrification?

Chiboni: There is already a push from African countries to make sure that we electrify the continent.

Eleni: One search for a good renewable energy system is located in Kenya’s lush and liy Muranga County.

Thomas Poelmans (Business Advisor & Director, Magiro Mini Hydro Power): So we basically using the force of the river falling from a higher point to a lower point harnessing that kinetic energy and transforming it into electric energy. And in Muranga County that’s the area where we are, in the greater Mount Kenya region, actually, Muranga County is so hilly that it has the potential to power about 55% of the whole of Kenya at the moment we are developing the first on a grids power plant that will be providing power to the national electricity grids and that one will produce power for 15,000 people.

Eleni: Examples are emerging of the big industry also pivoting to renewable energy like in the case of Oando Energy Resources a major player in the oil and gas sector operating in Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe,

Eleni to Ainojie Alex Irune: As one of the largest oil and gas companies on the continent why is it time for you to pivot into renewable energy?

Ainojie ‘Alex’ Irune (Chief Operating Officer, Oando Energy Resources): Globally there is certainly that mind frame across pretty much every oil and gas company today. We see a lot of shits happening and Eleni if you allow me to speak to some of those.

The first is the fact that the pandemic has taken away the notion of this heavy oil dependency. We see that a lot of the renewable assets were easier to manage through this period, when I say easier, I’m talking from attention to equipment perspective. It's only sustainable from a business standpoint to look to a future that’s renewable. It certainly is what we’re focusing on, we’ve pivoted to understand what that space requires but most importantly starting to drive the steps to create the investment in that space.

Eleni to Alex Irune: You’ve built 300kilomteres worth of gas pipeline supplying gas into coca-cola and Dangote and other industries as well how important is it to think ahead in trying to help businesses move away from the reliance on fuel and diesel?

Alex Irune: Gas is a key component of that transition. We see gas playing a huge role in the energy mix moving forward, we gas as the catapult that will certainly move Africa into an industrialize phase. Renewables from a cost perspective present a bit of a challenge for the continent, all the same, it’s not taken out of the equation it’s certainly something we’ll continue to look at and invest in but we see gas being the immediate transition and the support structure.

Eleni to Alex Irune: What impact does the African continental free trade agreement going to have on the oil and gas industry, on renewables, and general trading in power from country to country do you think that’s a dream we could actually see?

Alex Irune: We as a country export a significant amount of our crude to European countries and Asia whilst the rest of Africa in a sense that requires these products, isn’t able to trade as freely. And this is no fault of the government you know, it’s about the union, is about creating this free trade like you talked about, borderless countries, the movement of value across the borders to enhance the development of this continent.

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Eleni to Alex Irune: So Oando owns one of the turbines that helps the national grid get back online when there is a power outage, so how important is the private sector involvement in handling the backing infrastructure to support the national grid?

Alex Irune: It’s exciting when you’re able to develop your assets and supply gas in conjunction with the government to you know to a plant of this nature. But what’s more exciting is that we can take this model and duplicate it and create more of this around the country. Certainly, the private sector has a huge role to play, investment is required, the country is open for business and I think it’s important that as private sector players we realize that the provision of electricity whether it be captive power or grid power its solely not the government’s role.

Eleni: The off-grid solar industry has an annual turnover of 1.75billion dollars serving 420million users within the energy sector, according to a 2020 World Bank report. In Africa, the market is growing rapidly with the fall in the cost of solar panel technologies and the rising mobile banking and affordable financing in the continent fast-growing economies. Africa is home to the largest solar plant in the world - this is Morocco’s new solar complex situated in Ouarzazate connecting millions of people and businesses to power.

Youssef Stitou (Senior Project Manager, Moroccan Agency For Sustainable Energy): Everybody agrees that renewable energy is the future but in other to take the lead, the cost of energy needs to continually decrease and actually it’s taking the right part because now we are talking about the cost of solar energy that is competitive with conventional energy and is sometimes, cheaper than conventional energy.

Chiboni: Policies have changed in terms of the energy sector they’ve allowed for the pricing of the electricity such that the project owners can get a good return. The cost of energy has gone down remarkably the renewable energy has gone down remarkably so project owners can see a return so. I think there’s sufficient financing for good energy projects in the continent.

Eleni: The giant installation covers the size of around 3,500 football pitches at the heart of it is this 250meters solar tower. 7,400 huge mirrors reflect sunlight to the top of the tower where it heats up the liquid. As a result, steam is produced which then turns the turbines to create energy.

When a new solar complex was built in 2016, the World Bank reported that imported fossil fuels provided 97% of Morocco’s energy needs. Today, renewable energy generates around 35% of Morocco’s electricity, with this solar plant connecting 2million people and local businesses to this 24/7 power supply. In the future morocco wants to become an energy exporter within Africa and to Europe.

Youssef: Rather than speaking about exporting let’s say the dream or let’ say the first step is to inter-connect African countries between them meaning of the grid the electrical grid once we have interconnections between all countries for example like Europe we can exchange easily electricity production between countries and this is actually the first step to start exchanging electricity and exporting or importing between countries.

Eleni: The pan African collaboration is well underway with the Moroccan government recently launching a joint Initiative with the Islamic development bank to help fund renewable energy projects on the continent.

Youssef: Currently, we have already signed fourteen MOUs with fourteen African countries to develop solar energy and renewable energy in their countries and to share our experience and lessons learned with them, actually we are receiving a lot of visits here from African countries to see let’s say in real how it looks like, how it works, and to make them believe that such a big project is possible anywhere in Africa where they have the necessary solar resources.

Eleni: The World Bank invested more than 11.5billion dollars into renewable energy project in Africa between 2014 and 2018 as electrification is seen as key in driving economic growth on the continent. As a leader in renewable energy In Africa, South Africa is home to enormous solar plants and wind accounts for half of South Africa’s access to renewable power. Wind energy marketing in Africa is however perceived as lagging behind other keys in power technologies but there are those working to blow this perception away.

Eleni to Ntombifuthi: When we think of renewable energy, most people think of solar when it comes to what the African continent is geared towards. Do you think that we have understated the potential of wind power?

Ntombifuthi Ntuli (CEO, South African Wind Energy Association): Yes definitely we have because I mean if you think of it until maybe just about ten years ago there was no large scale wind energy projects at least in the southern region in the African continent and even in the sub-Saharan region we’ve got 34 windfarm power projects spread across the country mostly in the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape and then also in the western cape at this point. So, there’s a lot of untapped potentials not just in South Africa but in the whole continent and the industry is looking forward to actually turning that into power to power Africa.

Eleni: Africa is a continent of opportunity especially in terms of the growth of renewable projects like wind farms. Many of Africa’s biggest economies are actively opening renewable energy investments opportunities in their countries including the likes of Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Eleni to Ntombifuthi: There has been the big question of what’s cheaper what’s easier to plug into the grid what is more reliable?

Ntombifuthi: Wind was the cheapest and solar was very expensive but it has come down so drastically so I think at this stage both technologies are now comparable and money deploying a renewable to also need to think about, not just putting electrons into the grid but we need to think about what sort of economic development opportunities we can derive from this. We need to then strike the balance between creating a south African industrial base on the back of renewable energy development but at the same time keep the prices as low as possible.

Eleni: More than 90% of the electricity generated comes from thermal power stations with less than 10% coming from renewables. This mix makes South Africa one of the top carbon-emitting nations globally. Solar and wind are expected to higher to be responsible for 25% of electricity generation by 2030 and they’re expected to create jobs.

Ntombifuthi: The most exciting thing is the wind turbine technicians that we are training in the country are actually now finding jobs throughout the world because we have created that capacity, we’re now able to export it to other countries.

Eleni to Alex Irune: You know that upskilling people is so vital specifically in the space that you’re in what about the renewable energy sector. We relying on the importation of hardware, how do we localize?

Alex Irune: Whatever we choose to do has to sustainable as a continent. Moving into that renewable energy space, we must ensure that whatever technologies we choose to go with we can bring those supply chain into the country, develop the skills, ensure that the feedstock is here localized, ensure that the manufacturing and production is localized, and ensure that the distribution channels and consumption is possible. In the event we can’t, it’s clear the reliance for source or feedstock will have to come from other countries and from an energy independence standpoint, we want to focus on the sources that can be localized, we create jobs just like we have with gas and oil able to resource ourselves from our backyard and provide the much-needed power. The geek economic relies on one thing, power, I don’t think we’ll be talking about computers communication, the internet of things, big data, without power. So if Africa is going to play a significant role in that economy then we must gear ourselves up to at least have the foundation to do so.

Eleni: Today an inspection team at an eastern cape windfarm are using drones to examine turbine blades. It is skills like this that are now being exported around the continent and around the world.

Florian Kroeber (CEO, 3Energy Renewables): The wind industry in South Africa has managed to skill local technicians to the extent that other industries have not managed to do so. We see windfarms being built in Europe during the last couple of years with South African companies have taken a lead role we start to become an industry that can export knowledge. We do that to the benefit of the balance of the continent of Africa so obviously and we see windfarm development coming up in Kenya and in many other countries.

Eleni: In South Africa, the program that allows independent power producers to submit competitive bids to design develop and operate large- or small-scale renewable energy power plants has been an enormous success.

Chiboni: We are headed for a huge growth phase in the industry. There’s going to be lots of opportunities for players across the value chain whether development, whether construction, operation and maintenance, to actually get involved in the sector and contribute and benefit.

Eleni: Since its launch in 2011 the public-private partnership program has attracted over a 13billion dollars in private sector investments and has created around 38,000 jobs predominantly in local communities.

Florian Kroeber: The level of community involvement is very important for every renewable energy power plant. One of the best examples is the Tsitsikamma windfarm in the Eastern Cape where the community is not just the length owner but also a shareholder in the operating company.

Eleni: The Eastern Cape Province in South Africa has the largest number of wind projects in the country access to reliable power remains key for the continents economic development with 41% of African firms identifying unreliable electricity as a major constrain to business in 2019. This Tsitsikamma community windfarm powers local industries by supplying the national grid with clean energy.

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): We call ourselves wind farmers and we do exactly that, you know we harness the wind, we turn the moving particles into mechanical energy and then into electrical energy and then eventually we sell that.

Eleni: So, what makes the Tsitsikamma region special and adequate to set up a windfarm?

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): We see an average wind speed of around 7meters per second which is fairly good. The geography of the area was good enough for the turbine foundations and something else which obviously is very important was the transmission and the grid.

Eleni: ASCAM the national South African electricity provider was established almost a century ago and is Africa’s largest power utility. Today, it receives help from the likes of this turbine feeding into the national grid.

Eleni to Daniel: So how many houses can you light up from this farm?

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): This is probably about a hundred thousand houses, so we generate around 320gigwatts hours of electricity per year.

Eleni: While all South Africa’s wind farm is located in three of the nine provinces there are potential wind farm site across the country and the continent which could connect remote communities to valuable power and economic opportunities.

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): In South Africa, the western coast and the eastern coast of southern Africa and then some of the inland is scruple areas have fantastic wind. So it’s making sure that the transmission infrastructure is strong enough is important, but it certainly is something that is taken off at a massive rate.

Eleni to Daniel: How expensive is it to set up a wind farm, these turbines are enormous?

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): It’s probably about a 45million dollars per turbine.

Eleni to Daniel: Do you think we are going to see a lot more of these projects in the next few years and how much do you think it can actually contribute to the national grid?

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): Government brought out the integrated resource plan in 2019 which gives us an idea of the renewable, energy mixes up to 2030. We are looking at around 500 average-sized turbines that need to be commissioned every year to reach that target for a fantastic ride.

Eleni to Daniel: Just how important it is to get community buying when you set up a project like this?

Daniel Du Plessis (CEO, Cennergi): It’s critically important, we lease the property from the farmers but the farmer still has full use of the facility, creating enterprise development opportunities and employing local labour during both the construction and the operations phase is very-very important. We have to give back you cannot do this alone you have to take the community along there are parts of this business you know there are shareholders in the company there are beneficiaries of the community work that we do we have a responsibility to make sure that we supply the electricity in a sustainable way but we look after the communities and the environment.

Eleni: And as Africa’s renewable energy projects take off a more diversified energy portfolio in Africa has the potential to power up the continent.

Alex Irune: When we talk about electrification I think we have a model that will work for the continent which is captive power takes you into the local areas that require the power you move away from the large scale grid investments that are crippling for our poorly funded government but you’re able to create power for the microcosms that make up the effectively there some of the parts that is how you go about this and I think in Africa we figured this out. So, when we talk about pan African trade, for me to get power to you I have to create infrastructure.

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Source: Legit.ng