Energy supply security dimensions—affordability, availability, adaptability, and affordability — are central considerations to Africa’s environmental sustainability target and economic development. Energy plays a crucial role in the creation of economic growth conditions globally. Running a shop or delivering goods and commodities without energy is exceedingly difficult. However, operating a factory or an industry without energy is impossible. Electricity access is very crucial to human development. Electricity is essential for basic economic and residential activities such as refrigeration, lighting, and running and using household appliances. Individual and households’ electricity access is one of the clearest and undistorted indications of a country’s energy poverty status and for that matter energy accessibility, availability, and affordability.
Many countries in Africa have abundant energy resources such as fossil fuels, hydro, solar, and wind, nevertheless, many countries in Africa still struggle to provide citizens with reliable and affordable energy. The exploitation of primary energy resources, especially fossil fuels, has not added much value to the continent because of inadequate infrastructure, poor governance, and limited investment. The COVID-19 pandemic and the enduring invasion of Ukraine by Russia underscored the vulnerabilities of Africa’s energy systems. Supply chain disruption and demand fluctuated, leading to power outages and energy insecurity. The massive ability to utilize petroleum to expand energy access lays the fundamental foundations to embark on industrialization, which drives economic growth and development.
The explicit universal call to action in 2030 for the Sustainable Development Plan, which stakes are high for energy by making access to modern, sustainable, dependable, and affordable energy by 2030. Energy security is a vital aspect of ensuring that households, businesses, and industries have access to reliable and affordable energy. In Africa, access to energy remains a significant challenge, with over six hundred million people lacking access to electricity. The lack of access to energy is a major barrier to economic growth and development, as it limits the ability of households and businesses to engage in productive activities that require energy.
Energy security has, in recent times, become a major concern for governments and energy policymakers across the globe. This is to ensure that an undisrupted supply of energy will meet the energy demand to improve the welfare and quality of life of the people. This is necessitated by the fact that in responding to global agreement to climate change, recent policies try to devise means to tackle the problem of carbon emission and ensure energy security. These priorities are the key drivers and important targets for government energy planning in recent years and as such efforts of the policymakers to comprehend the pursuant of the targets. Understanding the ways to achieve these targets is important since pursuing one target exerts an influence to attain the other target.
The notion of energy security stems from managing risk to reducing energy supply shortages, the reduction of vulnerabilities of imported energy as well as the effectiveness of energy policy implementations and the integration of energy development goals. To achieve SDG 7—affordable and clean energy—current and planned efforts to provide energy and electricity accessibility must outpace population growth. Energy security is at risk when there is high dependence on imported energy sources. Therefore, an energy system is less vulnerable if its energy supply comes from several sources and is of diverse types. The balance of the long-term energy mix is not only an effective energy strategic management for securing future energy supplies but also reduces the risks associated with imported energy supplies and import cost fluctuations.
Many economies are now considering the balancing of sources of energy as a major policy measure to ensure energy security and sustainability. It is acceptable to promote fuel diversity in the power generation sector through a combination of diverse generation technologies. This helps in achieving a balance between reducing costs and risks. However, often, experts suggest that energy security is equivalent to energy independence, and many policies tend to focus on the promotion of local energy supplies while ignoring the importance of risk cost by increasing the diversity of imported energy sources and substitutability of various energy types.
Given that the distribution and availability of energy resources as being a critical component of energy security, particularly, in the shortest possible time, many concerns exist on overdependence of single energy sources which is easily prone to serious disruption thereby undermining energy security. For example, volatility of fuel prices that cause disruption in oil supply or climate change and variability that causes unexpected changes in solar radiation or wind speed (for renewables), or even sometimes unintended disruption of any energy sources can easily make the energy system very vulnerable.
However, the global demand for renewable energy sources and types has been growing due to negative connotations from the use of unclean energies such as fossil fuels. Renewables including geothermal, wind, biomass, solar, and hydroelectricity do not emit carbon into the atmosphere. This means that renewables have the capacity to provide energy without the emission of carbon into the environment. Hence, to achieve the climate change goals, renewables are more efficient than other primary energy sources. Moreover, energy experts favour renewable energy sources to be more easily accessible, available and more sustainable than other sources. The advantages of renewable energy over fossil fuels have made energy transition advocates push for a global consensus to as much as possible, transit to renewable energy. Also, the prices of renewable energy have been declining at a rate, faster than any other energy transition era. This has led to an increase in renewable energy production and consumption worldwide. Even petroleum-producing economies are transiting to renewables.
Despite all these, many economies in Africa barely have the potential and capacity to adopt and adjust to the renewable energy transition, particularly for consumption. Many African countries do not have the economic and technical ability to utilize renewables. Building a reliable power system in Africa requires huge capital investment yet raising capital to invest in energy systems has been challenging for African countries. Other discussions focus on the possibility of energy transition to curb energy affordability, availability, inequity, and security within and between countries and regions. The issue of equity will arise when emerging oil-producing economies in Africa must invest in more expensive sources of energy projects and not in less expensive sources that are costly to the citizens who rarely enjoy subsidies from their governments. This is because renewables such as solar and wind are intermittent which makes them difficult to predict and rely on them. The population of Africa is about one-sixth of the global population, yet it accounts for less than seven per cent of global energy consumption. These disruptions perpetrate grave concerns for development, growth, and survival.
Energy affordability is another critical consideration for African countries. Households in Africa spend a sizable portion of their income on energy, which can limit their ability to engage in other essential activities such as education and healthcare. The prohibitive cost of energy is also a significant barrier to economic growth, as it limits the competitiveness of African businesses. To address the issue of energy affordability, African countries need to promote energy efficiency and adopt measures to reduce energy costs. Energy efficiency refers to the practice of using less energy to achieve the same level of output. Energy-efficient technologies such as LED lighting, energy-efficient appliances, and energy-efficient building designs can help to reduce energy consumption and lower energy costs. African countries can also adopt measures to reduce energy costs, such as subsidies for low-income households and businesses, tax incentives for renewable energy production, and support for energy-efficient practices. For instance, the South African government has implemented a program to provide low-income households with free basic electricity, and many other countries are implementing similar programs.
Sustainability is a critical consideration for African countries as they strive to balance energy security and affordability. Sustainable energy development aims to meet the energy needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own energy needs. The adoption of renewable energy technologies is essential for sustainable energy development in Africa. Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal have the potential to provide affordable and reliable energy while minimizing the environmental impact. Solar, wind and geothermal energy are all renewable sources with significant potential in Africa.
Many economies in Africa have put in place policies to increase their renewable energy production. For example, Morocco has implemented one of the largest concentrated solar power projects in the world, and South Africa has set ambitious renewable energy targets. Other countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda are also investing in renewable energy technologies. Ghana has invested in hydroelectricity. In addition to promoting renewable energy, African countries also need to invest in energy infrastructure such as transmission and distribution networks. Investment in energy infrastructure is essential to ensure that energy transmission from producing regions to high energy-consuming regions. Renewable energy technologies can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. Additionally, countries in Africa need to adopt measures to promote energy conservation and reduce energy waste. Energy conservation involves using less energy by reducing energy consumption through efficient technologies and behavioural changes. Reducing energy waste involves avoiding unnecessary energy use, such as leaving lights on in empty rooms. At the same time, climate change and other environmental concerns have highlighted the need to promote sustainable energy development.
The energy transition pace will present challenges as well as opportunities (mixed implications) in Africa. More so, in Africa’s emerging petroleum economies, where petroleum resources are in abundance and the dependability of such economies on petroleum for economic growth and development is significantly, glaring. Thus, the speed at which the global economies “walk” the ongoing energy transition “talk” is overly critical and it has mixed implications for petroleum-dependent economies in Africa South of Sahara in particular. Africa cannot, however, attain energy security at the detriment of equity. Access to cheap energy is a fundamental human right, and we must work to guarantee that all communities have the energy they require to power their lives. Africa must guarantee that equitable energy delivery system, with special attention dedicated to low-income and minority groups. Addressing energy poverty is essential for promoting energy equity, as everyone should have access to energy, they need to meet their basic needs. Without energy equity, certain communities may not have access to affordable and reliable energy sources, which can put them at risk of energy insecurity. This can lead to a range of negative consequences, including increased economic hardship, reduced quality of life, and compromised health and safety.
So, how can Africa strike a balance between these three objectives? There are no easy answers, but I believe the Continent may strike a balance by employing a variety of tactics. The key driver among the tactics is substantial investment in renewable energy, energy storage, grid infrastructure, and other technologies. Energy transition is here but it is dynamic and not static. Neither does it end; actually, the dominance of primary energy sources evolves much more than transit. The displacement of a dominant primary energy source does not automatically eliminate that energy source from the energy supply mix. Empirical evidence suggests the world is not running out of crude oil and it is less likely than not that the world will run crude oil out of the global energy supply mix without dire macroeconomic consequences and energy affordability complexities in Africa. Africa needs a strategic thinking approach to the transition dynamics beyond the traditional reactive or ad hoc approach. However, African leaders in the private and public sectors in these economies must embrace the zero-carbon emissions talk, but walk the talk less rapidly than the developed economies who rode the back of crude oil for economic stardom.
Therefore, African countries must find a way to balance these competing demands and meet the energy needs of their citizens while also ensuring energy security and environmental sustainability. Sustainable optimization of an economy for national development requires energy accessibility, affordability and sustainability, and the energy supply mix must be inclusive of all energy sources including petroleum. Nevertheless, Africa must learn the lesson from the no-smoking campaign for many years before it took traction. The campaign for zero carbon emission fuels is on course. Using petroleum revenue management tools to drive the linkage necessary for the oil sector to drive emerging economies is critical to absorb the unintended consequences on African economies in case the developed economies decide to walk the loud energy transition talk precipitously.
