ESI Africa

At the Global Energy Pioneer Summit (GEPS) 2026, Sungrow, a globally leading PV inverter and energy storage system (ESS) provider, officially launched its next-generation PowerStack 3.0 commercial and industrial (C&I) ESS series for the global market. Designed for diverse application scenarios, the new series combines comprehensive product upgrades, an innovative system architecture, and AI-powered capabilities …

South Africa’s manufacturing competitiveness will depend on coordinated action to address structural inefficiencies in electricity, transport, water and logistics, rather than relying on short-term interventions alone. This was the central message from a keynote panel examining Threats and opportunities in South Africa’s industrial future, held at the C&I Energy+Storage Summit, co-located with the Energy Intensive …

Nine days prior to the opening of the International Exhibition of Extractive and Energy Resources (SIREXE 2026), Côte d’Ivoire has unveiled its roadmap to establish mining, hydrocarbons, and energy as the second engine of its economic transformation, alongside agriculture. The Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, presented the guidelines of the Integrated Mineral …

Crafting Uganda’s hydropower potential Uganda’s electricity system is the target of RENFIN/Hydropol Group’s Uganda Hydropower Solution 18MW programme, which will design, build, own and operate two run-of-river hydropower plants in the country’s mountain districts. The 9.5MW Cheptui plant is a high-head scheme on the Cheptui and Cheseber rivers in Kapchorwa District, on the slopes of …

The interconnector’s 500kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) line spans 1,045km with a 2,000MW capacity. It runs from the Wolayta-Sodo converter station in Ethiopia crossing into Kenya to end at the Suswa Substation. Completed in November 2022 and inaugurated in 2023, it is one of only a handful of HVDC links on the continent, alongside …

ESI Africa Editor-in-Chief Nicolette Pombo-van Zyl talks about three noteworthy points she learned about energy efficiency at the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) Africa conference. Firstly, that the cheapest kilowatt hour is the one you never use, Secondly, we have to stop working in silos, and Thirdly, the greatest route to sustainability and accountability is …

ESI Africa spoke with Oghosa Erhahon, the Policy and Markets Manager at the Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council, to capture exactly how this technology addresses the intermittency of renewable energy. To start our conversation, what is the basic definition of LDES? It is anything with an eight hour- plus storage duration. LDES unlocks major cost …

Two years of efficiency savings at ArcelorMittal South Africa equal a 100MW plant running for a year. The team behind this achievement credits alignment, not the technology implemented. That case study anchored a panel on energy performance contracting at the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) Africa conference in Cape Town on 28 October 2026. Moderator …

The latest Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2026 shows that the number of people using solar home systems, water pumps, generators, lanterns and other off-grid solar products rose 26% from 118 million to 149 million between 2023 and 2025. [embedded content] GOGLA Executive Director Sarah Malm talks about the off-grid solar sector’s record sales year …

For decades, grid operators took inertia for granted. Coal-fired, nuclear and hydro plants supplied it in abundance, their heavy generators rotating in step with grid frequency. Inverter-based resources (IBRs) put that stability at risk. Solar panels and batteries produce DC, which inverters convert to AC, and while wind turbines do spin, their electronic converters decouple …

Headlines report falling battery prices, LFPs dominating stationary storage, and sodium-ion edging into utility tenders. These market swings point to the chemistry likely to dominate the global storage race and what it could mean for grid operators, end users and investors. Battery cell manufacturing overcapacity and fierce competition drove lithium-ion (Li-ion) prices down over the …

An IDC guarantee now covers half the risk on ESCO loans to public entities, yet bankers say projects, not money, are holding energy efficiency back. South Africa has capital for energy efficiency, but financiers at the AEE Africa conference in Cape Town could not find enough bankable projects. That message ran through the opening day …

One could think of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) as the US service station for all American things nuclear. Here we explores the Laboratory’s role in microreactors and recent developments in the field. Since 1949, 52 research reactors at INL have been built to test how to use nuclear systems safely. While all but four …

As the new round of storage procurement plans advances, South Africa’s energy transition is entering a new phase centred on delivery capability and system flexibility. For South Africa, the next phase of the challenge is clear: it is about converting the country’s high-quality wind and solar resources into reliable, affordable and dispatchable electricity, and ultimately …

Eskom’s recovery has moved South Africa’s energy debate past keeping the lights on. Government now wants energy efficiency experts in the room before costs lock in. That was the message from Subesh Pillay, Chief of Staff to the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. He delivered the minister’s address at the Association of …

In less than a month’s time everyone who is involved in the climate negotiations process will travel to Turkey for COP31. I am referring to the international body authorised to address climate change, the Conference of the Parties, the COPs, where politicians, businessmen, lobbyists, civil society groups and scientists, gather to discuss where we are …

In 2025, the global wind energy sector crossed a historic threshold, installing a record-breaking 165GW of new capacity and pushing cumulative wind capacity past 1,299GW. Amid this growth, three African countries stand out: Egypt has passed the 3GW mark, Kenya’s wind fleet holds steady at 436MW, and South Africa has more than 4GW of operational …

Across Africa, power systems are undergoing a profound transformation. Rapid population growth, urbanisation, industrial development and ambitious electrification goals are increasing pressure on networks that must improve reliability, integrate growing volumes of renewable energy and strengthen regional interconnections. For utilities, regulators and governments, this creates a dual challenge: planning future power systems while modernising the …

Traditional geothermal power needs natural hot water and porous rock to be tapped. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), by contrast, use a human-made underground reservoir to generate electricity. The IEA posits in its Future of Geothermal Energy report that about one-fifth of the world’s EGS power potential exists in Africa, which also houses the largest untapped …

What’s stopping the batteries bought to beat power outages across Africa from becoming the continent’s cheapest peaking resource? Africa reversed the grid infrastructure sequence when households and businesses started paying for their own batteries to survive unstable power supply and diesel costs. In South Africa, thousands of home and business batteries sit idle for weeks, …

Gazetted in October 2025 after much to-ing and froing, the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025 breaks down the proposed energy mix into two scenarios, depending on what kind of energy capacity the country ends up creating. Still, GreenCape’s National Renewable Energy Market Intelligence Report 2026 says the IRP update signals a long-term national shift towards …

For most of the past decade, the question about energy storage was whether it would ever be affordable. That question has been answered.  Stationary battery packs fell to around $70/kWh in 2025, down 45% year on year, according to BloombergNEF. Africa installed an estimated 17GW of solar in 2026, a 45% rise on the year …

New research shows hospitals with electricity available at least 22 hours a day had inpatient mortality about 41% lower than those without. The study examined 303 hospitals and reference health centres across North Kivu, South Kivu and Haut-Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of …

There is a familiar ritual around climate finance: a financing gap is declared, pledges are announced, and the focus falls on how much money is being committed. But there is another question that receives far less attention: what form does that financing take? The answer matters as much as the amount of money pledged, particularly …