US$1bn for off-grid power in Africa

Companies in the United States have promised US$1billion for off-grid power projects in Africa, putting a growing focus on small-scale and renewable energy in the push to ease the continent's chronic electricity shortages.

President Barack Obama's administration announced commitments by 27 investors as it moved forward on a goal of doubling electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa, where a lack of power has been a key impediment to improving education and public health.

A statement issued in Ethiopia last week quoted the Energy Secretary, Mr Ernest Moniz, as saying, "with close to 600 million people without access to modern-day electricity, it is clear that centralised grid access is not a comprehensive solution for these countries in one of the world's least urban continents." 

"But through solutions including off-grid and small scale energy projects, we can bring electricity to these rural areas," he said.

The commitments, which will total more than US$1bn over five years, will include investments in solar and small-scale hydro power stations, training of African specialists and crowdsourcing of funds to support local power providers.

A counsellor to President Obama, John Podesta, said falling costs of renewable energy as well as advances in power storage and other technologies had made off-grid options increasingly attractive.

"While the market is still young, it holds great promise to follow the mobile phone in leapfrogging centralised infrastructure across Africa," Mr Podesta wrote on a White House blog.

President Obama, on a trip to Africa a year ago, announced that the United States would mobilise US$7bn in mostly private funds over five years to bring electricity to at least 20 million more homes and businesses. It is the latest major US initiative for sub-Saharan Africa after former president George W. Bush championed action against AIDS and other diseases.

The electricity effort enjoys broad US support, with the Republican-led House of Representatives approving legislation last month with an even more ambitious goal of bringing electricity to 50 million Africans.