OPPORTUNITY AFRICA

Experts Breakbulk spoke to agreed that the range of projects currently underway, and in the pipeline, is a major boon for the sector’s service providers. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) energy expert Martin Solomon said: “For large-scale projects timelines are long and the process can take decades to get off the ground. There needs to be an alignment between the public and private sectors while the investment needs to make sense to financiers. Getting the political and commercial sides on the same page can be difficult. The smaller projects, however, require only a modest amount of capital, are extremely scalable and many governments are happy to see private stakeholders and independent power producers take the lead.”

In East Africa, major inroads have been made, Klinck said. Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda are on track to meet their 2030 energy goals and other countries on the continent are working hard to catch up. Efforts to deliver capacity are being scaled up.

“There is potential in Mozambique for another 1,500 MW and in Tanzania, a similar size project is underway. In the Democratic Republic of Congo they are moving forward with a project on the Congo River, while Zimbabwe has more than ten projects in the pipeline that are a good medium to large scale,” he said.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ROUTE

In the end, successful projects in Africa start and end with route feasibility. Said Warren: “The biggest problems oftentimes only rear their head over the last few kilometers getting to a site that could involve constructing a road from scratch or finding alternative truck/trailer combinations. Considering the sensitivity of a transformer it is important, for example, to avoid a situation where the front of the truck goes over a crest and the back is not there yet, resulting in the cargo touching the ground or the truck getting jammed in tight dips.”

According to IHA’s Campbell, this is where small-scale hydro projects are proving their worth as they can be scaled and adjusted to meet the local environment and geographical limitations. “When it comes to hydropower it is very much sitespecific. It requires a lot of civil work upfront, but it does not have the particularly difficult demand of wind or is delicate.”

Moving forward, he said, it is critical to increase timelines for getting consenting and planning right. “At present, it can take up to ten years to complete these processes alone and that is too long. We have built enough hydropower projects in Africa to know we can overcome the challenges that exist from a logistics and project perspective. We have to improve regulatory frameworks to speed up delivery.” BB

Venter is a transportation journalist based in South Africa.