Private sector is key to achieving energy targets

Editor, RE: “How solar power can be made even more attractive for Africa” (The New Times, October 1). This is a very good piece. I believe there is confusion in some sphere of the industry where people associate mini-grid to solar. Mini-grid could be solar, small hydro, biomass, wind, geothermal or even hybrid systems with thermal sources (diesel, gas, etc.) The second confusion I often see people would tell you that we need to spend considerable resources on extensive studies on where the grid will reach in 10 years so the mini-grid doesn’t lose business when the grid reaches there. This argument is often cited by bureaucrats who either don’t understand the power business or are just enjoying the status quo. For most sub-Saharan African countries (except North Africa and South Africa), the grid is below 35% yet billions/trillions of dollars from government coffers have been invested in extending the grid since independence (50 or so years ago). So how do you convince me (an average muturage) that the grid will reach everywhere in 10 years...unless we stop all government expenditures in education, health and agriculture. Is that doable? Finally, to the development partners, given that you have the technical/financial capacity to push the off-grid agenda, be pragmatic and stop asking private developers useless financial models so you get convinced that a developer will borrow at commercial bank rates, make money and charge electricity rates that are competitive or at par with the grid with no or limited grants for the transmission/distribution costs. The last confusion I often hear is the range for the mini-grid (10KW to 10MW). 10MW in off-grid? Good luck with that unless you are powering a mining site or an industry otherwise getting that kind of demand in so-called off-grid area is quite challenging. I would reduce the range to 10KW-1MW. My piece of advice: Just provide the same subsidy (not more or less) to the cost of connecting one household and we can reach 100% electrification access in less than 5 years. For that to happen, private sector is key. Al

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Private sector is key to achieving energy targets