The pace of electrification in Africa has nearly tripled since 2012, relative to the previous decade, with electrification in sub-Saharan Africa surpassing population growth for the first time in 2014.

However, there is a long way to go to realise continental electrification, says Aggreko CEO Chris Weston.

Roughly 57% of the African population still did not have access to electricity – the largest such concentration in the world, he told delegates at the recent Africa Energy Forum, held in Mauritius.

Weston highlighted progress towards bridging that gap, including the establishment of the Impact Hub, in Kigali, Rwanda, which launched a nationwide search for new solar energy solutions.

Further, in Nigeria, government had outlined plans to deploy 10 000 new microgrids.

Weston noted clear trends in energy included the move towards renewables. “Between 2000 and 2012, there were 3.5-million people who enjoyed renewables-based power in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Between 2012 and 2015, this increased dramatically to around 18-million people, particularly from large-scale hydropower and geothermal sources.”

He added that much of the policy and economic focus had been on renewables over the last few years, and with good reason. “The cost of renewables continues to drop [and] energy storage is maturing – which, in turn, increases the utility of renewables solutions.”

Weston predicted this would continue.

Renewables, taken in the context of a second trend, namely decentralisation, would have a huge impact on Africa’s energy mix, said Weston, noting that power was increasingly being generated exactly where it was needed, which meant the need for centralised power generation from large-scale power plants delivering baseload through national grids was decreasing.

“It could well be that, within the next ten years, the need for [centralised power] will fall away entirely, owing to not being [adequately] cost effective,” he stated.

Instead, there would be more localised energy sources and microgrids. As a result, more consumers would become independent from the grid, the cost of staying on the grid would increase and the trend to decentralisation would intensify.

Further, Weston discussed how, in a transforming energy world, thermal energy would be needed to ensure secure, uninterrupted power supply, while being deployed in innovative ways.

He explained that, with renewable power sources being available intermittently, it was necessary for either storage solutions or fast-start thermal generation to provide power when renewable generation was not available.