Learning from Best Practices
Ipshita Nandi Banerjee is Global Communications and Gender Lead at USEA. She is a strategic communications expert with eighteen years’ experience in Public Affairs working with government, not for profit and multilateral organizations. Ipshita is specialized in organizational and development sector communications, reputation management, and leadership advisory.
Global energy access has never been fair and equal. Every aspect of human development over the last century had two prerequisites — stable energy supply and access to water. Both have been in short supply, with the absence of one or the other resulting in social, economic, or welfare hardships, further compounded by extreme weather conditions and climate change. Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced this firsthand.
Africa is fairly endowed with significant energy resources for electricity generation, but they are unevenly distributed. Oil and gas reserves are mainly located in North Africa and the Gulf of Guinea where wind power potential is significant. Hydropower potential is focused in Central and Eastern Africa with the addition of geothermal.
South Africa's abundant coal resources dominate the generation mix in Southern Africa with ninety percent of the fifty-five billion tons of total reserves. Despite what appears to be a plethora of sources for electricity generation, Africa still struggles for reliable electricity. This has been due to a complex mix of historical, infrastructural, political, economic, and technical factors.