Africa’s energy transition presents a significant opportunity to expand electricity access, stimulate industrial growth and attract private capital, provided that investment frameworks, grid infrastructure and policy certainty evolve to support long-term deployment, highlights Boston Consulting Group MD and partner Kesh Mudaly. He notes that while substantial global capital is earmarked for the energy transition, emerging markets continue to face structural barriers that slow investment, adding that the challenge is therefore not just the absence of capital scarcity, but the mechanisms required to mobilise and deploy it effectively.
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As African countries respond to global pressure to transition to renewable energy while also addressing urgent development and energy needs, the focus should not be on moving away from coal, but rather on decarbonising its industrial use, says University of the Witwatersrand chemical and metallurgical engineering senior lecturer Dr Nandi Malumbazo. The global decarbonisation agenda should extend beyond the power sector, as all industrial sectors reliant on carbon-based raw materials face similar pressures. African governments, she adds, must carefully consider whether and how their economies can afford such a transition.
Africa has the potential to bypass a century of centralised, carbon-heavy power systems and move straight to a digital, distributed and low-carbon grid, but only if project execution matches project ambition, says global energy technology company Schneider Electric Middle East and Africa Zone president Walid Sheta. He argues that electrification, efficiency and smart grid management form the continent’s fastest route to economic growth and, in elaborating on Africa’s energy transition, he says that demand fundamentals create “an historic opening”.
South Africa’s energy transition is on the right track, but structural grid constraints, slow climate finance deployment and the socioeconomic realities of the coal regions threaten to hinder progress, states academic and political analyst Dr Oscar van Heerden. Van Heerden says that growing renewable-energy activity and recent regulatory reforms signal positive momentum; however, the pace and design of the just energy transition (JET) will determine whether it succeeds economically and socially.
Glencore’s South African ferrochrome unit could walk away from talks with the government over a discounted electricity package due to what it sees as unfavourable conditions, an executive said on Thursday. Glencore has said it requires reduced tariffs to keep its loss-making smelters open and avert job cuts. The government is keen to save the smelters, which employ thousands and are major customers of the state-owned electricity supplier Eskom.
Beyond traditional infrastructure and financing structures, a new generation of partnerships is beginning to shape how energy projects interact with the communities around them. As Africa accelerates efforts to close its infrastructure gap and expand energy access, one reality is increasingly clear, that cross-border growth cannot be delivered in isolation. Across energy, mining and large-scale infrastructure, sustainable expansion depends on carefully structured, value-aligned partnerships.
As South Africa’s electricity market shifts into competitive mode, 2026 may be a year of deal-making and portfolio realignment across the energy value chain, states law firm Webber Wentzel. The firm expects to see increased activity in mergers, acquisitions and strategic joint ventures as international investors and regional platforms look for scalable entry points.
Infrastructure as an asset class plays a dual role in building the economy by reducing the costs of doing business and by directly contributing to the economy. For South African businesses to grow and thereby grow the economy, the country must reduce the cost of doing business, and infrastructure plays a role in achieving this, said Finance Deputy Minister Dr David Masondo on March 19, in Westcliff, Johannesburg.
The National Treasury has officially launched a R54-billion performance-based grant in a bid to increase investments in water, sanitation, electricity and waste infrastructure services by the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, or metros. Known as the Metro Trading Services Reform, the performance-linked incentive aims to mobilise more than R100-billion in infrastructure investment over the coming six years, with recipient municipalities required to match the infrastructure grants with their own revenues and borrowings.
In this article, EE Business Intelligence MD Chris Yelland writes that a legal dispute now before the courts highlights a rapidly emerging fault line in South Africa’s energy transition: intensifying competition among renewable energy developers for scarce grid connection capacity.
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