How to bring affordable, sustainable electricity to Africa | Rose M. Mutiso

83,638 views ・ 2019-11-19

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:13
So right now, nearly one billion people globally
0
13737
3277
00:17
don't have access to electricity in their homes.
1
17038
2929
00:19
And in sub-Saharan Africa,
2
19991
1522
00:21
more than half of the population remain in the dark.
3
21537
2866
00:25
So you probably all know this image from NASA.
4
25869
2891
00:28
There's a name for this darkness.
5
28784
1630
00:30
It's called "energy poverty,"
6
30438
1500
00:31
and it has massive implications for economic development
7
31962
3389
00:35
and social well-being.
8
35375
1365
00:36
One unique aspect of the energy poverty problem in sub-Saharan Africa --
9
36764
3685
00:40
and by the way, in this talk when I "energy," I mean "electricity" --
10
40473
3866
00:44
one thing that's unique about it is
11
44363
1960
00:46
there isn't much legacy infrastructure already in place
12
46347
2582
00:48
in many countries of the region.
13
48953
2345
00:51
So, for example, according to 2015 data,
14
51322
3076
00:54
the total installed electricity capacity in sub-Saharan Africa
15
54422
3278
00:57
is only about 100 gigawatts.
16
57724
2296
01:00
That's similar to that of the UK.
17
60044
1872
01:02
So this actually presents a unique opportunity
18
62615
2760
01:05
to build an energy system in the 21st century
19
65399
3230
01:08
almost from scratch.
20
68653
1397
01:10
The question is: How do you do that?
21
70540
2346
01:13
We could look back to the past and replicate the ways
22
73400
2961
01:16
in which we've managed to bring stable, affordable electricity
23
76385
3240
01:19
to a big part of the world's population.
24
79649
2341
01:22
But we all know that that has some well-known terrible side effects,
25
82518
3196
01:25
such as pollution and climate change,
26
85738
2250
01:28
in addition to being costly and inefficient.
27
88012
2593
01:30
With Africa's population set to quadruple by the end of the century,
28
90629
3794
01:34
this is not a theoretical question.
29
94447
2271
01:36
Africa needs a lot of energy, and it needs it fast,
30
96742
2613
01:39
because its population is booming and its economy needs to develop.
31
99379
3602
01:44
So for most countries, the general trajectory of electrification
32
104212
3717
01:47
has been as follows.
33
107953
1398
01:49
First, large-scale grid infrastructure is put in place,
34
109375
3094
01:52
usually with significant public investment.
35
112493
2421
01:54
That infrastructure then powers productive centers,
36
114938
2580
01:57
such as factories, agricultural mechanization,
37
117542
2982
02:00
commercial enterprises and the like.
38
120548
2612
02:03
And this then stimulates economic growth,
39
123184
2525
02:05
creating jobs, raising incomes
40
125733
2267
02:08
and producing a virtuous cycle
41
128024
1494
02:09
that helps more people afford more appliances,
42
129542
2675
02:12
which then creates residential demand for electricity.
43
132241
3015
02:15
But in sub-Saharan Africa, despite decades of energy projects,
44
135946
3469
02:19
we haven't really seen these benefits.
45
139439
2440
02:22
The energy projects have often been characterized by waste,
46
142657
2805
02:25
corruption and inefficiency;
47
145486
2098
02:27
our rural electrification rates are really low,
48
147608
2804
02:30
and our urban rates could be better;
49
150436
2348
02:32
the reliability of our electricity is terrible;
50
152808
3232
02:36
and we have some of the highest electricity prices in the whole world.
51
156064
3465
02:39
And on top of all of this,
52
159553
1680
02:41
we are now facing the impacts of the growing climate catastrophe head-on.
53
161257
4094
02:46
So Africa will need to find a different path.
54
166145
2267
02:49
And, as it turns out, we are now witnessing
55
169588
2099
02:51
some pretty exciting disruption in the African energy space.
56
171711
3352
02:55
This new path is called off-grid solar,
57
175547
2472
02:58
and it's enabled by cheap solar panels,
58
178043
2221
03:00
advances in LED and battery technology,
59
180288
2421
03:02
and combined with innovative business models.
60
182733
2302
03:05
So these off-grid solar products typically range from a single light
61
185059
3968
03:09
to home system kits that can charge phones,
62
189051
3082
03:12
power a television
63
192157
1873
03:14
or run a fan.
64
194054
1483
03:15
I want to be clear:
65
195561
1409
03:16
off-grid solar is a big deal in Africa.
66
196994
2641
03:19
I have worked in the sector for years,
67
199659
1885
03:21
and these products are enabling us to extend basic energy services
68
201568
3410
03:25
to some of the world's poorest,
69
205002
1736
03:26
raising their quality of life.
70
206762
1889
03:28
This is a very good and a very important thing.
71
208675
3243
03:31
However, off-grid solar will not solve energy poverty in Africa,
72
211942
4636
03:36
and for that matter,
73
216602
1195
03:37
neither will a top-down effort to connect every unserved household
74
217821
3139
03:40
to the grid.
75
220984
1250
03:42
See, I'm not here to rehash that played-out "on-versus-off-grid"
76
222258
4655
03:46
or "old-versus-new" debate.
77
226937
1668
03:48
Instead,
78
228629
1155
03:49
I believe that our inability to grapple with and truly address
79
229808
3351
03:53
energy poverty in Africa
80
233183
1210
03:54
stems from three main sources.
81
234417
1715
03:56
First, we don't really have a clear understanding
82
236616
2950
03:59
of what energy poverty is, or how deep it goes.
83
239590
3071
04:03
Second, we are avoiding complex systemic issues
84
243023
2860
04:05
and prefer quick fixes.
85
245907
1776
04:07
And third, we are misdirecting concerns about climate change.
86
247707
3517
04:11
Combined, these three mistakes are leading us to impose a Western debate
87
251694
3788
04:15
on the future of energy
88
255506
1271
04:16
and falling back on paternalistic attitudes towards Africa.
89
256801
2995
04:20
So let me try and unpack these three questions.
90
260378
2260
04:22
First, what exactly is energy poverty?
91
262662
2319
04:25
The main energy poverty targeted indicator
92
265005
2518
04:27
is enshrined in the UN's Seventh Sustainable Development Goal,
93
267547
2941
04:30
or SDG 7.
94
270512
1230
04:31
It calls for 100 percent of the world's population
95
271766
2661
04:34
to have access to electricity by the year 2030.
96
274451
2431
04:37
This binary threshold, however,
97
277457
1665
04:39
ignores the quality, reliability or utility of the power,
98
279146
4309
04:43
though indicators are currently being developed
99
283479
2241
04:45
that will try and capture these things.
100
285744
2194
04:47
However, the question of when a household is considered "connected"
101
287962
3225
04:51
is not quite clear-cut.
102
291211
1797
04:53
So, for example, last year the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
103
293032
3731
04:56
declared all of the villages in India electrified,
104
296787
2715
04:59
the criteria for electrification being
105
299526
2010
05:01
a transformer in every village plus its public centers
106
301560
3071
05:04
and 10 percent -- 10 percent -- of its households connected.
107
304655
3835
05:09
Meanwhile,
108
309452
1171
05:10
the International Energy Agency, which tracks progress against SDG 7,
109
310647
4536
05:15
defines energy access as 50 kilowatt hours per person per year.
110
315207
4960
05:20
That's enough to power some light bulbs and charge a phone,
111
320597
3725
05:24
perhaps run a low-watt TV or fan for a few hours a day.
112
324346
4476
05:28
Now, providing entry-level access is an important first step,
113
328846
4207
05:33
but let's not romanticize the situation.
114
333077
2737
05:35
By any standard, a few lights and not much else
115
335838
3244
05:39
is still living in energy poverty.
116
339106
2119
05:41
And what's more,
117
341979
1459
05:43
these energy poverty indicators and targets
118
343462
2822
05:46
cover only residential use.
119
346308
2174
05:48
And yet, households account for just about one quarter
120
348506
3269
05:51
of the world's electricity consumption.
121
351799
1887
05:53
That's because most of our power is used in industries and for commerce.
122
353710
4059
05:57
Which brings me to my main point:
123
357793
2247
06:00
countries cannot grow out of poverty without access to abundant,
124
360064
3843
06:03
affordable and reliable electricity to power these productive centers,
125
363931
4232
06:08
or what I call "Energy for Growth."
126
368187
2325
06:10
As you can see from this graph,
127
370536
1620
06:12
there's simply no such thing as a low-energy, high-income country.
128
372180
3560
06:15
It doesn't exist.
129
375764
1377
06:17
And yet, three billion people in the world
130
377165
2511
06:19
currently live in countries without reliable, affordable electricity --
131
379700
3675
06:23
not just to power their homes but also their factories,
132
383399
3292
06:26
their office buildings, their data centers
133
386715
2342
06:29
and other economic activities.
134
389081
1956
06:31
Merely electrifying households and microenterprises
135
391529
2996
06:34
cannot solve this deeper energy poverty.
136
394549
2596
06:37
To solve energy poverty,
137
397169
1525
06:38
we need to deliver reliable, affordable electricity at scale,
138
398718
4563
06:43
to power economy-wide job creation and income growth.
139
403305
3950
06:47
This need, however, bumps against an emerging narrative that,
140
407279
4222
06:51
faced with climate change,
141
411525
1345
06:52
we all need to transition from large, centralized power systems
142
412894
3647
06:56
to small-scale distributed power.
143
416565
2094
06:59
The growth of off-grid solar in Africa --
144
419722
1977
07:01
and let me repeat, off-grid solar is a good thing --
145
421723
2541
07:04
but that growth fits nicely into this narrative
146
424288
3028
07:07
and has led to those claims that Africa is leapfrogging the old ways of energy
147
427340
4101
07:11
and building its power system from the ground up,
148
431465
2726
07:14
one solar panel at a time.
149
434215
1758
07:16
It's a nice, solicitous narrative, but also quite naïve.
150
436942
3937
07:21
Like many narratives of technological disruption,
151
441660
2970
07:24
often inspired by Silicon Valley,
152
444654
1998
07:26
it takes for granted the existing systems that underpin all of this transformation.
153
446676
4885
07:32
You see, when it comes to innovating and energy,
154
452067
3318
07:35
the West is working around the edges of a system that is tried and tested.
155
455409
4391
07:39
And so all the sexy stuff --
156
459824
1967
07:41
the rooftop solar,
157
461815
1492
07:43
the smart household devices, the electric vehicles --
158
463331
3461
07:46
all of this is built on top of a massive and absolutely essential grid,
159
466816
4125
07:50
which itself exists within a proven governance framework.
160
470965
3381
07:55
Even the most advanced countries in the world
161
475608
2205
07:57
don't have an example of an energy system that is all edges and no center at scale.
162
477837
4239
08:03
So ultimately, no approach --
163
483163
2638
08:05
be it centralized or distributed, renewable or fossil-based --
164
485825
3762
08:09
can succeed in solving energy poverty
165
489611
2591
08:12
without finding a way to deliver reliable, affordable electricity
166
492226
4154
08:16
to Africa's emerging industrial and commercial sectors.
167
496404
3380
08:20
So, it's not just lights in every rural home.
168
500312
3070
08:23
It's power for Africa's cities that are growing fast
169
503908
3346
08:27
and increasingly full of young, capable people
170
507278
2630
08:29
in desperate need of a job.
171
509932
1732
08:32
This in turn will require significant interconnectivity
172
512303
3756
08:36
and economies of scale,
173
516083
1523
08:37
making a robust and modern grid
174
517630
1941
08:39
a crucial piece of any energy poverty solution.
175
519595
2860
08:43
So, our second mistake is falling for the allure of the quick fix.
176
523821
4221
08:48
You see, energy poverty exists
177
528417
1883
08:50
within a complex socioeconomic and political context.
178
530324
3347
08:54
And part of the appeal of new electrification models
179
534121
3076
08:57
such as off-grid solar, for example,
180
537221
1772
08:59
is they can often bypass the glacial pace and inefficiency of government.
181
539017
4584
09:03
See, with small systems you can skip the bureaucracies and the utilities
182
543625
4496
09:08
and sell directly to customers.
183
548145
1912
09:10
But to confront energy poverty,
184
550914
2768
09:13
you cannot ignore governments, you cannot ignore institutions,
185
553706
3174
09:16
you cannot ignore the many players involved in making, moving
186
556904
3708
09:20
and using electricity at scale,
187
560636
2591
09:23
which is a way to say that when it comes to providing energy for growth,
188
563251
3639
09:26
it's not just about innovating the technology,
189
566914
2578
09:29
it's about the slow and hard work of improving governance, institutions
190
569516
4531
09:34
and the broader macroenvironment.
191
574071
1920
09:37
OK, so this is all good and nice, you say.
192
577022
3285
09:40
But what about climate change?
193
580743
1635
09:42
How do we ensure a high-energy future for everyone
194
582968
3404
09:46
while also curbing our emissions?
195
586396
1963
09:49
Well, we'll have to make some complex tradeoffs,
196
589411
3148
09:52
but I believe that a high-energy future for Africa
197
592583
2374
09:54
is not mutually exclusive to a low-carbon future.
198
594981
2716
09:58
And make no mistake:
199
598239
1408
09:59
the world cannot expect Africa to remain in energy poverty
200
599671
2940
10:02
because of climate change.
201
602635
1514
10:04
(Applause)
202
604173
3769
10:11
Actually, the facts show that the opposite is true.
203
611949
3296
10:15
Energy will be essential for Africa to adapt to climate change
204
615269
3194
10:18
and build resilience.
205
618487
1481
10:19
You see, rising temperatures will mean increased demand for space cooling
206
619992
4004
10:24
and cold storage.
207
624020
1173
10:25
Declining water tables will mean increased pumped irrigation.
208
625217
3676
10:28
And extreme weather and rising sea levels will require a significant expansion
209
628917
3862
10:32
and reinforcement of our infrastructure.
210
632803
2231
10:35
These are all energy-intensive activities.
211
635058
2660
10:38
So balancing climate change and Africa's pressing need
212
638535
3506
10:42
to transition to a high-energy future
213
642065
2041
10:44
will be tough.
214
644130
1231
10:45
But doing so is nonnegotiable; we will have to find a way.
215
645385
3861
10:49
The first step is broadening the terms of the debate
216
649790
2575
10:52
away from this either-or framing.
217
652389
2689
10:55
And we also must stop romanticizing solutions
218
655102
2583
10:57
that distract us from the core challenges.
219
657709
2276
11:01
And let's not also forget that Africa is endowed with vast natural resources,
220
661572
4348
11:05
including significant renewable potential.
221
665944
2614
11:08
For example, in Kenya, where I'm from,
222
668979
2741
11:11
geothermal power accounts for half of our electricity generation,
223
671744
3764
11:15
and with hydro being the other major source,
224
675532
2069
11:17
we are already mainly powered by renewable energy.
225
677625
2451
11:20
We also just brought online Africa's largest wind farm
226
680100
3284
11:23
and East Africa's biggest solar facility.
227
683408
2914
11:26
(Applause)
228
686346
3639
11:30
In addition,
229
690906
1389
11:32
new technology means that we can now run and design our power systems
230
692319
3789
11:36
and use energy more efficiently than ever,
231
696132
2458
11:38
doing more with less.
232
698614
1684
11:40
Energy efficiency will be an important tool
233
700322
2157
11:42
in the fight against climate change.
234
702503
2124
11:45
So in closing, I'd just like to say that Africa is a real place with real people,
235
705998
5273
11:51
navigating complex challenges and major transitions,
236
711295
3207
11:54
just like any other region of the world.
237
714526
2296
11:56
(Applause)
238
716846
3152
12:02
And while each country and each region
239
722390
2665
12:05
has its social, economic and political quirks,
240
725079
2908
12:08
the physics of electricity are the same everywhere.
241
728011
2566
12:10
(Laughter) (Applause)
242
730601
3753
12:14
And the energy needs of our economies
243
734378
3022
12:17
are just as intensive as those of any other economy.
244
737424
3380
12:21
So, the expansion of household electrification
245
741535
2825
12:24
through a mix of on- and off-grid solutions
246
744384
2158
12:26
has had an incredible impact in Africa.
247
746566
2342
12:28
But they are nowhere near sufficient for solving energy poverty.
248
748932
3279
12:32
To solve energy poverty,
249
752628
1698
12:34
we need generation of electricity from diverse sources at scale
250
754350
4130
12:38
and modern grids to power a high-energy future,
251
758504
2467
12:40
in which Africans can enjoy modern living standards
252
760995
2752
12:43
and well-paying jobs.
253
763771
1491
12:45
Africans deserve this,
254
765744
1788
12:47
and with one of every four people in the world projected to be African
255
767556
4087
12:51
by the year 2100,
256
771667
1646
12:53
the planet needs it.
257
773337
1251
12:54
Thank you.
258
774612
1166
12:55
(Applause)
259
775802
2969
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7