“We need to balance aspirations for lower-carbon, more sustainable power in Africa, with the availability of affordable, reliable power for all.”
Kenneth Oyakhire, MD and CEO of Services in Sub-Saharan Africa for Gas Power at GE Vernova, gives his view on the mix of solutions needed, and the role that gas can play.
“We need to balance aspirations for lower-carbon, more sustainable power in Africa, with the availability of affordable, reliable power for all.
To this end, we will need to invest in a mix of solutions on the power generation side, including renewables and gas power.
Gas is the least carbon intense option among traditional fossil fuels. The accelerated deployment of renewables and gas power together, can support substantive emissions reductions now, while enabling gas power to complement variable renewables by providing flexible, on demand electricity to stabilize the grid.
In Africa, where many countries are dependent on coal-based generation, switching from coal to gas could also enable a reduction in emissions of up to 50%, while still providing firm power that can be ramped up or down quickly.
Gas also provides high density power and is suitable in countries and urban areas where land availability is constrained.
Additionally, it is important to recognize that building a gas power plant today does not necessarily lock in carbon emissions at the original level for the life of the project.
Gas turbines are a destination technology that can play a significant role in the near-zero carbon economy of the future through pathways provided by solutions such as hydrogen and carbon capture technologies.
These solutions do need to mature to attain further scale and cost competitiveness and GE Vernova is investing in research and partnerships to contribute to that.
In fact, today, GE Vernova has more experience running gas turbines on hydrogen than any other OEM.
In total, we have 120+ gas turbines supporting power generation with hydrogen and associated fuels around the world, with combustion technologies that are capable of operating on a wide range of hydrogen concentrations up to ~100% by volume.”
GE Vernova is a lead sponsor at the Africa Energy Forum 2024, where Joseph Anis, President & CEO, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Eric Amoussouga, Commercial Director for Power Transmission, Sub-Saharan Africa, Grid Solutions, Yasin Kasirga, Decarbonization Leader, Carbon Solutions, Middle East & Africa, Otmane Benamar, Chief Technology Officer, EMEA, Gas Power and Ousmane-Wa Ndoye, MD, Senegal, Gas Power will all be speaking.