As South Africa’s ongoing energy challenges unveil opportunities for innovations and solutions, small businesses have a major role to play in the country’s transition to renewable energy and loadshedding mitigation.

This emerged during the 2023 edition of Huawei’s ICT Editors Xchange, where a panel of experts in technology, energy and finance as well as from academia outlined the future of energy in South Africa, and Huawei showcased, during a tour of its Innovation Centre in Johannesburg, its various solutions to mitigate the current power challenges.

Township economies and small, medium- sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) are feeling the biggest impact of the persistent loadshedding, hindering their growth and their capacity to create jobs in an already challenging operating environment.

“I think we underestimate the issue of access to energy and particularly for the townships and rural communities,” said Tshwane University of Technology Department of Management and Entrepreneurship senior lecturer Dr Patrick Ebowa.

He pointed out that for rural and township SMMEs, the cost of diesel for generators is blowing profitability out of range, and even when considering solar solutions for many small businesses, it is financially out of reach as well.

“The question becomes how best can we make it affordable for people in the township and rural communities,” he continued, further highlighting the importance of making SMMEs part of the entire value chain of the country’s energy solution.

“Working on the ground, they are well positioned to be part of the solution for the provision of a reliable and affordable power supply, and should be more empowered to provide local solutions to local challenges,” Ebowa said, adding that SMMEs have a significant role to play in South Africa’s renewable-energy development plans and should be involved in the entire development process.

Further, to leave a community in a “better position” after a renewable-energy project, programmes should be established to ensure that residents and community members are trained in other skills to enable them to become artisans, welders, entrepreneurs or farmers, besides others, enabling sustainability within that community, said Huawei Digital Power Business Unit solar channel manager Prinaven Naidoo.

He further pointed out that Huawei, which has the innovative technology to create photovoltaic plants and storage solutions, has a number of information and communication technology skills and training programmes, including ‘A Thousand Digital Power Talents’, which trains installers.

CMS South Africa banking and finance director and head of project finance: energy and infrastructure Bridgett Majola, commending both public and private financial institutions for the increased focus on making sustainable investments, particularly in the energy space, added that rhetoric around environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues is becoming more positive and meaningful, allowing for the impact of energy issues to be more measurable.

“Many companies are increasingly focusing on ensuring that their assets that they invest in are sustainable and that they have an impact,” she said, noting that when there is an investment that has been made in a particular community, it is important that the impact is measurable, easily identifiable, sustainable and a long-term solution.

Naidoo, meanwhile, outlined Huawei’s capacity to design and roll out sustainable energy solutions for commerce, industry and the residential sector.

“Digital power is the fastest-growing business unit within Huawei, representing 60% growth, and the company is the largest manufacturer of inverters in the world,” he said.

Huawei’s role as the leading provider of digital energy solutions makes the company a significant player in the quest to ensure Africa’s energy sovereignty and security.

Huawei has developed technology that functions even on a weak power grid and is part of the acceleration of clean energy development.

“In a complex environment, Huawei is providing simple, straightforward solutions to the continent’s and indeed the world’s energy crisis,” said Huawei Digital Power sub- Saharan Africa region senior systems architect Muhammed Ismail Seedat, who gave the keynote address.

South Africa’s energy crisis has created opportunities for innovation, especially given Africa’s abundant natural resources, which can be harnessed for renewable-energy supply.

Norsad Capital head of infrastructure and investment director Zubair Suliman outlined the appetite of funders to support the country’s just transition to clean energy projects.

“The current global energy crisis has had at least one positive outcome, which is to force the world to address the issue of climate change.”

The panellists encouraged all stakeholders, including business, government and academia, to explore the opportunities the current energy crisis has provided.