Power and Energy in Africa
Senior 3 · Geography
Power and Energy in Africa
Lesson 2 of 4
30 min
Let's begin
In 2024, the worst drought in decades struck southern Africa. Lake Kariba, the reservoir behind the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi, fell so low that Zambia's Kariba North Bank power station, built to produce 1,080 MW, could produce only about a fifth of that. Zambia gets most of its electricity from water, so homes, shops, hospitals and mines faced power cuts of many hours a day, at times more than twenty. Why does power matter so much to development, and why is producing it in Africa so difficult?
| Use | How it supports development | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Industry and mining | Runs machines, smelters and factories, creating jobs | Copper smelters on the Copperbelt run on hydropower |
| Homes | Lighting for study at night, phone charging, clean cooking, refrigeration | Solar home kits in rural Rwanda |
| Services | Hospitals, schools, banks, ICT and water pumping | Vaccines kept cold in health centres |
| Agriculture | Irrigation pumps, milk cooling, grain milling and crop processing | Irrigation from reservoirs in Egypt |
| Transport | Fuel and electric railways | The electric railway from Addis Ababa to Djibouti |
| Export earnings and cooperation | Countries sell electricity to neighbours and share power plants | Rusumo hydropower station, shared by Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania |
| Protecting forests | Electricity and gas replace firewood and charcoal | LPG and electric cooking in Rwandan towns |
| By-products of dams | Reservoirs provide fish, irrigation water, flood control and tourism | Fishing on Lake Volta and Lake Kariba |
Definition
Load shedding: switching off power to some areas in turn because supply is too small to meet demand. National grid: the network of power lines that links power stations to users across a country. Off-grid: electricity produced where it is used, such as a solar home system, without a connection to the grid. Power pool: an agreement among neighbouring countries to link their grids and trade electricity.
| Problem | Explanation | Solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Drought and seasonal river flow | Low rainfall cuts hydropower, as at Kariba in 2024 | Mix of sources (solar, wind, geothermal); regional power trade; storage |
| Siltation of reservoirs | Soil eroded from bare slopes fills reservoirs and wears turbines | Afforestation and terracing in catchments; dredging |
| High capital cost | Dams, power lines and plants cost billions of dollars | Private investors, loans, regional projects |
| Small markets and poverty | Many people cannot pay for connection or power | Subsidised connections; cheap off-grid solar paid in small amounts |
| Scattered rural population | Long power lines to few users are expensive | Off-grid solar and mini-grids for remote villages |
| Dependence on imported oil | Diesel and heavy-oil plants are costly when oil prices rise | Replace them with local renewable sources |
| Losses, theft and old equipment | Power is lost along old lines; poor maintenance causes breakdowns | Repairing and upgrading the grid; prepaid meters; training |
| Displacement and environmental damage | Reservoirs flood farms and homes; thermal plants pollute the air | Careful site choice, fair compensation, cleaner technology |
| Disputes over shared rivers | Upstream dams can reduce water for countries downstream | Agreements through bodies such as the Nile Basin Initiative |
Rwanda has tackled the problem of scattered rural homes by using two routes at once: extending the national grid, and supplying off-grid solar systems where the grid is far away. According to REG, 85.4% of households had access to electricity at the end of 2025, up from 64.53% in 2020–21; 60.1% were on the grid and 25.3% used off-grid solar (Figure 3).
Worked example
Worked example 1: reading Figure 3. By how many percentage points did household access rise between 2020–21 and the end of 2025, and what fraction of connected households used off-grid solar?
Worked example
Worked example 2: a drought's effect. Kariba North Bank was built to produce 1,080 MW, but in 2024 it could produce about 214 MW. What percentage of its capacity was available?
Warning
A dam is not a guarantee of power. Hydropower depends on rainfall in the river's catchment. A country that relies on one source, especially one large dam, is exposed to droughts; that is why exam answers on solutions should include diversifying the sources of power.
Tip
Group your answers on the importance of power by sector: industry, homes, services, agriculture, transport and trade. One clear example for each sector is better than a long list of uses.
Al Jazeera: Zambia's long power cuts as Lake Kariba's water level falls during the 2024 drought. Note how the power cuts affect homes and businesses.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
