Africa is a continent with a population of more than 1 billion, which is expected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2050, according to a recent study by the United Nations. Most of them do not have access to modern forms of electricity.

According to the U.S. Power Africa fact sheet, the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with a population of more than 85 million, has a national electricity access rate of just 9 percent, 1 percent in rural areas, and 19 percent in rural areas.

Africa has huge supply gaps and huge investment opportunities

Therefore, the huge capital project construction expenditure required to meet Africa's existing electricity supply gap presents an attractive and positive investment opportunity in the power sector. This gap, combined with the urgent need to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, means the opportunity for the electricity sector to light up Africa is enormous, to say the least.

The Sustainable Development Goals aim to ensure that by 2030 everyone around the world has access to affordable, reliable, sustainable modern energy. Recognizing that the urgent need for electricity cannot be met by gas-fired power plants alone, most African countries have shifted their policy focus to encouraging investment in renewable energy solutions, including hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear.

For example, small hydropower plants are an invaluable part of Africa's energy mix and can be developed with minimal or no negative social and environmental impacts. Small hydropower plants can be built in almost all regions of Africa. The sustainability of their standalone utilization in rural Africa can be justified by noting that many viable small hydro-scale power plants are actual "runoff river" schemes based on waterwheels, requiring minimal civil works.

GenesisEnergy (GENESIS) is ready to partner with strong international companies including Voith-Germany to deploy multiple modular micro-hydro plants in several eligible communities in Africa. GENESIS aims that these multiple off-grid small hydropower investments will act as the necessary catalyst to stimulate improvements in socioeconomic activity within and outside rural communities.

The appeal of this innovative small-scale hydropower modular runoff solution, in addition to the speed of deployment on a fast track basis with little or no civil construction, includes potential funding from several multilateral development agencies and national credit agencies financing solutions. Up to 85% off equipment costs; single-digit fixed rates and long-term repayments of up to 20 years.

These renewable energy solutions can be deployed into existing grids as necessary "complements" or restricted to consuming communities or locations through microgrids, ensuring that communities not served by the national grid can still use modern, energy-efficient Competitively priced and clean energy in a sustainable manner. Editor / Xu Shengpeng