Boasting an abundance of wind, solar, hydro and geothermal resources, technological innovation and new initiatives in Africa are expected to play a major role in positioning the continent on a pathway towards low carbon energy development. As development costs continue to decline, a panel of speakers at ARDA Week 2024 explored new innovations and technical applications that will develop across the global energy space while driving the energy transition in Africa.
As the world tries to plan and coordinate action across multiple sectors and systems, innovations in energy transition technologies – including carbon sequestration, hydro-processing and the voluntary carbon market (VCM) – are poised to foster inclusive economic growth, wealth creation, poverty eradication and inequality reduction.
“In Africa, we have unmatched potential from a resource perspective, but we also need to create consolidated programs to get better funding with more transparency on [carbon sequestration] projects,” stated Vice President of Product Strategy at logistics company Ion Commodities Lance Fogtam, adding, “What we really want to think about from an African perspective is a voluntary market, which is predicated on the VCM.”
Expanding in geography and scope, emissions trading schemes and VCMs allow global emitters to buy credits from carbon abatement projects and third-party organizations. According to Fogtam, this innovative transition technique is well positioned to help Africa offset its emissions towards net-zero commitments.
Meanwhile, clean fuels development is poised to ensure Africa’s growing population has access to affordable energy necessary for human development. In order to unlock the transition’s potential in Africa, Sebastien Bariller, Vice President for Supply Logistics in Africa at energy supermajor TotalEnergies noted that governments and institutions will need to mount public awareness, mobilize existing clean technologies and ensure funding drive green competition amongst countries and industries on the continent.
“The energy transition will be quite different in Africa,” state Bariller, adding, “We need affordable energy, we need energy security and we need a safe and better energy. We’ve put a lot of investment to ensure our teams run our operations sustainably.”
In addition to the carbon credit market and clean fuels development, hydro-processing technologies will allow the production of cleaner and better performing derivatives. As such, Derek Bultitude, Regional Leader of sub-Saharan Africa at petroleum industry company Honeywell UOP highlighted that the innovative refinery technology is a cost-effective way of introducing renewable carbon into transportation fuels while leveraging existing downstream assets.
“It’s part of an overall solution to meet renewable carbon compliance,” Bultitude stated.
As a commercially proven approach to meeting renewable carbon compliance, Bultitude noted that hydro-processing will allow downstream operators on the continent to revamp operations while minimizing investment and maximizing compensation for greenhouse gas emissions.
As such, it was stated during the panel session that technological support for the energy transition in Africa – with support from policy, regulatory framework and financial and infrastructure improvement – is a requisite for enhancing the deployment of renewable sources of energy in Africa.