Sustainable Energy Solutions For Southern Africa

On 8 July 2015, the Brenthurst Foundation in partnership with ICEX (the Spanish Trade Development Institute) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung hosted a high-level Roundtable examining the current challenges and opportunities in Southern Africa as the region seeks to greatly enhance electricity generating capacity over the coming decade.

Drawing experts from government, the private sector and academics – both African and non-African – this Roundtable assessed the current energy picture in the region and examined where the future emphasis and investment – by whom, where and in what parts of the energy picture – are likely to generate the most sustainable development across the region.

In preparation for the Roundtable, a background paper by Professor Oliver Ruppel of the University of Stellenbosch was commissioned and circulated in advance to participants. It highlighted inter alia the numerous links between energy, poverty and development.

Both the Summary of the major issues and findings of the Roundtable and Professor Ruppel’s background paper are published here in our Discussion Paper series.