Opinion: Why energy efficiency is Africa’s first renewable resource

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Forget solar and wind potential. Africa's most abundant energy resource lies in energy efficiency, says Felix Keuya in today’s opinion article. The continent loses around 25% of its generated power through leaky grids and 40% via wasteful industrial processes. Tackling these losses could unlock gigawatts of capacity — enough to power millions.

• Mr Keuya is a researcher focused on engineering and finance in the energy sector. He has been featured in multiple publications and has worked on projects related to solar energy, industrial energy efficiency, and waste heat recovery.

• He argues that large cement industries could generate megawatts of power through waste heat recovery technologies. Yet, fewer than 10% of these plants have even conducted feasibility studies, which shows how much untapped potential remains.

Opinion article

By Felix Keuya

Energy efficiency is a powerful and underutilised resource in Africa, offering a faster and more cost-effective solution to energy scarcity than building new power plants. Despite having vast renewable potential, the continent struggles with blackouts and energy poverty due to widespread inefficiencies in industrial facilities and grids. By implementing efficiency measures, such as waste heat recovery in cement plants, Africa could unlock gigawatts of capacity, save billions of dollars, and simultaneously achieve economic, social, and climate goals.

Africa has enough renewable potential to power the world many times over. Yet factories continue to shut down because of frequent blackouts, 600 million people remain without electricity, and utilities struggle to stay solvent. At the same time, industrial facilities waste up to 40% of the energy they consume through outdated boilers, inefficient motors, leaking systems, and poor controls. 

But how can a continent so rich in renewable energy resources, such as solar, hydro, and wind resources, still be defined by energy scarcity? The answer lies not only in insufficient generation but in the widespread inefficiencies that drain capacity before it reaches those who need it.

Efficiency is the continent’s first renewable resource

Energy efficiency is not simply a side measure of conservation; it represents Africa’s first renewable resource. Unlike large‑scale generation projects that require years of financing, permitting, and construction, efficiency improvements are faster, cheaper, and more reliable to implement. By reducing inefficiencies in industrial processes, transmission networks, and households, the continent could unlock the equivalent of gigawatts in new capacity — at a fraction of the cost of building new power plants — while also freeing billions of dollars for economic development.

Grid and industrial inefficiencies

Inefficiency is not limited to factories. Africa’s grids themselves are plagued by systemic losses, with 15 to 25 % of generated electricity disappearing before reaching consumers. Much of this is the result of ageing infrastructure, theft, and poor maintenance. In Kenya, transmission and distribution losses hover around 23 %. In Nigeria, they exceed 25 %. Each per cent of electricity lost represents thousands of households left without electricity. These grid inefficiencies are not merely technical flaws. They force utilities to buy costly emergency power, deepen financial distress, and limit industrial productivity. Reducing grid losses to global benchmarks of under 10 % would unlock the equivalent capacity of multiple new power plants. It could be achieved without constructing a single additional facility.

This systemic waste on the grid connects directly to inefficiencies within industries, together forming a cycle of lost capacity that undermines development. In other words, the same weaknesses that cause electricity to leak from the grid are echoed inside factories. This makes the cement sector a powerful case study of how systemic and sectoral inefficiencies compound one another.

Cement plants are among Africa’s most energy‑intensive facilities. They often consume 30 to 40 % more energy per tonne of output than the global best practice. Waste heat recovery (WHR) technologies offer a transformative opportunity. Capturing hot exhaust gases from kilns and converting them into usable energy can reduce a plant’s electricity consumption by up to 30 %. Yet, despite this potential, fewer than 10 % of cement plants on the continent have completed feasibility studies.

The numbers highlight the scale of lost opportunity. A single large cement plant wasting 20 megawatts of recoverable heat could power 50,000 households. International studies show that if Africa’s cement sector adopted WHR broadly, the savings could exceed several gigawatts of equivalent capacity. That would be enough to electrify millions of homes. This comparison underscores how grid losses and industrial waste are part of the same structural problem, one that constrains electrification and growth alike.

The triple dividend of efficiency

The case for efficiency extends across economics, society, and climate. Economically, efficiency reduces dependence on costly imported fuels, relieves utilities of expensive emergency generation purchases, and makes domestic industries more competitive. Socially, it allows households to gain access to electricity without tariff increases, while reducing reliance on kerosene and diesel. From a climate perspective, cutting energy intensity aligns Africa with global decarbonisation pathways, even as the continent triples its energy supply to meet developmental needs. Efficiency is, in other words, the rare intervention that delivers simultaneously on growth, equity, and climate.

From invisible power plants to policy imperative

If efficiency is treated as policy rather than an afterthought, it could create entirely new industrial ecosystems. A global reminder comes from the lighting policy. When countries such as India and members of the European Union integrated mandatory LED adoption programs, they rapidly cut national electricity demand and reduced household costs, proving how targeted efficiency standards can deliver measurable impact at scale. Framed as infrastructure, efficiency projects function as invisible power plants — assets that are investable, bankable, and capable of delivering predictable returns. Geopolitically, efficiency would allow Africa to shift from exporting raw minerals to competing globally with energy‑efficient manufactured goods.

China provides a striking example of what such a policy can achieve. In the mid‑2000s, Beijing introduced strict regulations requiring all new cement plants above a certain capacity to install WHR systems as a condition for operation. This mandate led to one of the fastest and broadest adoptions of WHR technology worldwide: by 2015, more than 700 cement production lines had installed WHR units, collectively generating over 7 gigawatts of electricity — roughly the output of several large power plants. This rollout cut energy intensity across the industry. By comparison, Africa’s cement sector remains far behind, with adoption below 10 %. The contrast highlights the scale of untapped opportunity if similar policy frameworks were applied.

The road ahead

The scale of the opportunity is evident. In Kenya, reducing transmission losses from 23 % to 10 % could electrify nearly three million households. In Nigeria, retrofitting cement and steel plants could ease peak demand enough to significantly reduce blackouts. In South Africa, efficiency improvements at Eskom could save as much output as an entire coal plant. These are not abstract scenarios but tangible, data‑backed opportunities.

If Africa continues to chase generation alone, it will keep running in place. But by embracing efficiency — and particularly by unlocking the vast potential of industrial waste heat recovery in cement — it can leap into a future where electrification, industrial growth, and climate goals reinforce one another. The call to action is urgent: policymakers must design incentives and regulations that make efficiency investments mandatory, and investors should view efficiency retrofits as bankable projects with quick returns. Efficiency must be recognised not as a supporting actor to renewables, but as an immediate, investable opportunity capable of delivering measurable social, economic, and climate impact today.