Politics
Obama’s Power Africa Initiative Showing Results but Draws Criticism
Other notable renewable projects in the works include: NextGen Solar is developing several solar power plants, including 70 megawatts in Tanzania, 50 megawatts in Kenya, 35 megawatts in Ethiopia, 30 megawatts in Ghana and 15 megawatts in Nigeria, representing total investment of $600 million; Nigeria Solar Capital Partners, a joint venture with US-based Industry Capital, is proposing to develop and operate up to 500 megawatts of utility-scale solar facilities in Nigeria by 2020; Hecate Energy is completing a 50 megawatt PV solar project in Tanzania; Harith General Partners is investing $70 million in the 300 megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power project in Kenya; and, Aldwych International is investing is developing 400 megawatts of wind power in Kenya and Tanzania.
Oil and Gas Development?
Power Africa’s fine print also includes separate deals with Uganda and Mozambique for “responsible” oil and gas development through their involvement in the Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI), a US Department of State-led interagency effort to provide technical and capacity building assistance to help these countries establish the capacity to manage their oil and gas sector resources responsibly.
“The commitment of $7 billion to Africa’s power infrastructure will obviously have an impact, but this amount is not solely allocated toward renewable energy capacity building,” Gareth Blanckenberg, Industry Analyst for Energy & Power at Frost & Sullivan Africa told AFKInsider.
“It sounds consistent with the Obama administration’s domestic ‘all of the above’ energy initiatives,” Tyson Slocum, Director of Washington, D.C.-based Public Citizen’s Energy Program told AFKInsider. “Since 2009, the Obama administration has had a very active [oil and gas] fracking program out of the State Department that works in Europe, South America and Asia.”
Uganda and Mozambique have “world class hydrocarbon resource potential and expect to receive sizable, near-term financial windfalls from the development of their oil and gas resources,” according to the US State Department’s Governance and Capacity Initiative website, which notes to program is to “ensure sound and transparent energy sector governance for the benefit of national economic development.”
The program also “supports a broad range of U.S. foreign policy objectives and is tightly coordinated with our overall bilateral energy relationships.”Part of the problem critics have with this part of the Power Africa program is that it seems to play on Washington’s fear of China, which is pouring billions of dollars into the continent – particularly for oil development.
