We all want power in 2014

With many countries holding elections in 2014 – Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, South Africa, American mid-terms, and Scotland’s referendum on whether to remain part of the United Kingdom – power is up for grabs.

But that’s not the power I was referring to. Electricity = Power. Without power, businesses and economies can’t develop. More than half of African business leaders identified a lack of power as a large constraint on growth (The Economist, The World in 2014).

Therefore, a high priority for the international aid agenda will be “energy poverty.” In 2014 the United Nations will kick-off a “decade of sustainable energy for all” campaign. Countries will develop plans to provide their citizens with energy access by 2030. In addition, the American Government will extend its development policy, the “Power Africa Initiative” that commenced in Tanzania in 2013. Up for consideration soon, by the American Congress, is the Electrify Africa Act.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that an additional investment of $600 billion is needed by 2030 to provide all citizens of countries who lack power with enough funds for an electric light, a fan, and a mobile phone charger. Measuring the world’s unmet electricity demand is not easy, so this is one estimate, although broadly accepted. The American Government’s Power Africa Initiative starts the ball rolling with $7 billion in public funding for projects in 6 African countries, with about $9 billion in private finance.

The challenge is not only to find the funds to electrify Africa, and other developing nations, but also to do so with clean technology. So far, Africa has developed 7% of the continent’s hydropower potential, 0.7% of its wind power potential, and even less of its solar power potential. Gas is limited to power homes and businesses.

While currently much of Africa stops after dark, the electrification agenda – its energy poverty elimination agenda – could potentially provide much more than power.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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