Southern Africa's Power Crisis

The Problem:

As of 2007, Southern Africa started experiencing a critical, regional power shortage. It was around this time that, according to general consensus, the region’s major power provider, state-owned Eskom ran out of surplus capacity. Continued moderate economic growth in South Africa, combined with the Government’s laudable program to deliver electricity to millions of new households, is driving demand for an additional one thousand plus megawatts of electricity per year.

As power demand rises to meet maximum supply, the development of new power generation should already be underway. But the significant cost of new ‘greenfield’ power projects - approximately US1 million per megawatt of electricity - requires significant foreign investment which so far has not materialised.

The implications of this are clear:

• Eskom’s exports of cheap, surplus power to Botswana cannot continue as domestic demand rises;
• South Africa is rapidly moving towards a point where it will be unable to meet the electricity demands of its own people.

The Solution:

Kalahari Energy is working rapidly to develop a power source which will not only provide the domestic Botswana market with affordable, clean fuel, but which will also enable the safe, cheap and easy export of energy throughout the region using a ‘virtual pipeline’ of LNG or DME.