The future of renewable energy is bright

The African continent is blessed with an abundance of natural wealth – her limitless potential casting an illuminating glow over her people.

So, as we begin to move to hydrogen future – away from this dark cloud of coal and into the glow of renewable energy, we have already seen a significantly reduction of carbon emissions and tremendous potential for the application of battery storage, says Maximilian Niederehe, Business and Solutions Development Manager at Siemens Energy.

“Some of the technologies are also capable of having a sector coupling potential,” says Niederehe, in reference to the potential of multi-usage of energy and its flexibility to allow users to decide how to make effective use of storage.

So, what does Africa’s energy future look like 20 years from now?

“The future of energy is really bright from a renewable energy perspective,” says Bhavtik Vallabhjee, Head of Power, Utilities and Infrastructure at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking.

“You will find that our landscape of energy will actually move away from coal – there will be gas supplementing variable renewable energy, wind, solar, energy storage will be a big dominant part and, the storage element will actually enable renewables to be dispatched as and when needed,” predicts Vallabhjee.

He believes that the considerable amount of capital invested in the evolution of battery technology and energy storage, coupled with tapping nature’s natural resources, “really makes for a green future going forward.”

Ted Blom, Power and Mining Expert and Partner at Mining and Energy Advisors says electricity will become commoditised.

“In 2040 and after that, the terrain will be very different and hopefully we’ll also be in a very prosperous position,” he affirms.