Business

AMEU President Rob Ferrier says 2026 will test municipal power utilities on three fronts, namely new regulation, rooftop solar eating into revenue, and rising infrastructure crime. Ferrier heads the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities (AMEU), which represents municipal electricity distributors across Southern Africa. Speaking with ESI Africa on the association’s priorities for the year ahead, …

During the US 1950-70s power plant build, the business model of a consortium of utilities handling most of the work in building an NPP had several advantages. The first advantage of the US model is that it offered flexibility. A project was easily customisable, so a plant suitable for a particular geographical area could be …

Africa’s solar panel manufacturing output is set to quadruple in 2026, reaching around 3,500MW as two large new plants ramp up in Egypt and Tanzania, according to new analysis from Ember and the African Tech Futures Lab. Almost none of that capacity is destined for African roofs. Egypt’s EliTe Solar began production at Ain Sokhna …

Between 2023 and 2025, Africa installed an estimated 20GW of distributed solar — rooftop systems built behind customers’ meters, largely without government incentives. That is 75% of everything the continent added in solar over the period, according to new analysis from Ember and the African Tech Futures Lab. “We were finally able to pin down …

In their Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that current annual uranium demand of close to 70 kilotonnes of natural uranium equivalent will increase strongly as global nuclear generation capacity expands. Still, while requirements for uranium generally increase as more nuclear plants are built, improving fuel utilisation and reactor …

Analysis from Ember and the African Tech Futures Lab puts Africa’s 2026 solar installations at 17 gigawatts, a 45% rise on 2025 and the third consecutive record year. The estimate is built from Chinese customs export data, calibrated against real-world installation rates in other markets, rather than waiting on national statistics that mostly don’t exist …

Over the last few decades, nuclear power has had a bad rap. This has been partly due to huge public misunderstanding about the truth of nuclear power, but also due to intentional disinformation liberally spread around by anti-nuke lobbies, writes Dr Kelvin Kemm, a South African nuclear physicist. The anti-nuke propaganda has largely been spread …

Imagine that I weigh 150 kg (over 23,5 stones). If I weigh 150 kg and my heart, kidneys and other vital organs are on the verge of collapsing, a ‘net-zero’ calorie policy just ensures I stay at 150 kg. It stops me from getting heavier, but it leaves me in the intensive care unit. To …

For years, the global energy narrative has treated efforts to power Africa to advance economic growth and increase energy access as a sheer-volume game. The attention is on a race to build hydropower dams, wind farms and solar parks to bridge a massive deficit. However, generation capacity is moot if the delivery medium is broken. …

Chinese solar panel exports into Africa cost $2.4 billion in the twelve months to June 2026, according to new analysis from Ember and the African Tech Futures Lab. Generating that same amount of electricity from diesel would cost roughly that much again — every three months. The imported panels effectively pay for themselves in diesel …

Across a series of interviews recorded at the ESI Africa Studio and on the sidelines of World Atomic Week, executives, regulators and academics described a continent edging towards nuclear power for security of supply. Strip away the megawatt targets and a different nuclear story emerges. The hard work is not laying the concrete or installing …

How will African countries turn nuclear energy ambition into delivery – and who pays for it? These are the topics addressed at the Nuclear in Africa side event at Enlit Africa in May 2026. Government leaders, utilities, regulators and financiers from South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Türkiye and France set out a shared conclusion to …

Decades of technological process and falling manufacturing costs are turning the economics of electricity around. At the same time, a decade of private operators testing out new financial models has proven the viability of distributed renewable energy on the ground in Sub-Sahara Africa. Why then, does electricity access still continue to lag behind in Sub-Sahara …

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are moving beyond R&D to become first-of-a-kind (FOAK) market-ready infrastructure. [embedded content] Sengiphile Simelane, Group Executive: Power and Industry Division at NECSA, shares insights into the role of modular nuclear reactors in addressing Africa’s growing energy needs. The Nuclear Energy Agency’s (NEA) Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Dashboard: Third Edition, which tracks progress through February 2025, …

For years, Africa’s nuclear conversation has skirted the idea of whether to include nuclear in the mix, but we should be asking what it costs to keep ignoring nuclear power. The instinct is to weigh nuclear against renewables on cost-per-megawatt and carbon intensity, as though generation were the only variable that mattered. This view is …

As South Africa faces increasing water scarcity, ageing infrastructure and rising demand, water reuse is rapidly becoming one of the country’s most important opportunities to strengthen long-term water security. [embedded content] Maskam Water CEO Gerhard Cronje explains how decentralised water and wastewater solutions are helping communities respond to rapid urbanisation, population growth and changing regulatory …

So far in 2026, IPPs have accounted for 100% of new generation capacity and looking at the current build pipeline, the private sector demand will have a strong influence on what power projects get built going forward. A Power Futures Lab briefing note on South African IPPs shows a very large number of IPPs entering …

Global manganese ore prices eased somewhat in 2025, after a period of price volatility in 2024 thanks to major supply disruptions. Now in 2026, the prices are going up again, influenced by the increase in oil prices. Conflict in the Middle East has influenced costs across the mining sector, and manganese producers especially are feeling …

Keith Katyora, Senior Manager: Grid Expansion & Energy Systems at the Energy Council of South Africa explores the transmission and market challenges shaping Africa’s energy future. The Energy Council of South Africa is a CEO initiative that brings together public and private sector companies, relevant associations, local development finance institutions, all of the stakeholders that …

Namibia is demonstrating what is possible in Africa’s energy transition with the continent’s first fully integrated green hydrogen facility. The CMB.TECH Namibia facility in Walvis Bay brings together solar power generation, green hydrogen production, and energy storage in a single operational ecosystem, demonstrating how clean energy can be produced at industrial scale while supporting industrial …

Lithium demand globally of 275kt in 2025 represented a 23% year-on-year growth, well above that seen in other commodity markets. “The expansion reflects the continued acceleration of electrification. Demand from EVs rose by 20% to 170kt, while demand from battery storage reached 30kt,” said the IEA in their Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026. [embedded content] …

Azwimbavhi Mamanyuha, Eskom General Manager: New Business Engineering, Innovation and Localisation, shares how collaboration, technical expertise and knowledge exchange are helping South Africa strengthen grid stability. He explains how South Africa is fortunate enough to have engineers who are well-versed in grid stability techniques. “We know that by sharing that with other people, we benchmark …

Leigh Waters-Maine shares her insights on the importance of diversity, networking and industry partnerships in advancing sustainable wastewater treatment solutions. Co-founder and CEO of Phoka M Holdings, a sustainable infrastructure and clean technology company recognised for developing a chemical-free wastewater treatment system, Waters-Maine makes the case for women to be included in the clean technology …

The price of copper surged to record highs in 2026, exceeding $14,000 per tonne in May. The global demand for the refined metal reached almost 28Mt in 2025, an increase of 3.7% from 2024 say the IEA in their Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026. [embedded content] This webinar brings together industry leaders, technical experts and …