The United Nations hosted the second Sustainable Energy for All Forum this week. The four-day set of events and announcements was aimed at fulfilling Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s creditable 2011 vision of achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030 (along with a doubled global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and doubled share of renewable energy in the global energy mix).
For the most part, through no fault of the organizers, the proceedings had the familiar feel one gets at the intersection of diplomacy and finance — standup speeches and boilerplate statements.
But there were several inspiring moments that reflected how a focus on on-the-ground training can help spread new energy choices on a planet where the poorest two billion still have few options.
One came on Thursday, as Dikirani Thaulo, a 21-year-old graduate of the Zayed Solar Academy in Malawi took the podium in the General Assembly hall and lit a candle to remind attendees of the light source he studied by as a youth. He then hefted a household solar panel and explained that he now not only could install them, but was teaching other students how to do so.
The academy is one of two educational facilities built in the Nkhata Bay school district with $100,000 won in 2014 in the high school category of the Zayed Future Energy Prize competition, administered by a United Arab Emirates foundation.
I was at the forum to run a panel right after Thaulo’s speech, on “sustainable energy” as envisioned by the World Wildlife Fund, Shell and a former chief executive of South Africa’s biggest utility, Eskom. There were (surprise!) some differences, particularly about the Arctic, but there was common ground, too; you can watch the discussion here.
I led off my remarks by noting how Thaulo’s candle harked back to the secretary general’s 2011 speech introducing his 2030 energy-access goal, in which he recalled how, as a youth after the Korean War, he had to study by kerosene lamp light until it was time for exams. Only then would a precious candle be used.
After our discussion it was time to hear from Akon, a hip-hop and R&B star with a huge following in Africa and a passion for building a business there bringing solar power to rural regions.
The two-year-old company, Akon Lighting Africa, is already installing street lights and small household solar systems in 14 countries, with expansion plans. At the U.N., Akon announced that the company would be creating a job-training solar academy in Bamako, Mali, along with its partner business, Solektra.
Here’s a brief chat I had with one of Akon’s two partners, Thione Niang, explaining the goals of Akon Lighting Africa:
There’s more on the company and the solar-technology training center in a post on The Wall Street Journal’s Frontiers blog and in a company news release.
I wish them luck, and hope to have a look at both the Malawi and Mali efforts in the next year or so.
Leading off my panel discussion, I asked the former Eskom executive, Brian Dames, to describe what success in Africa would look like. Here’s what he said:
My end result would be that we do not have these sessions at the U.N. any more and everybody goes back to real jobs… And that the young man who stood up here — we don’t have any more of those examples coming to New York.
The best thing you can do on the African continent is build capacity – around regulations, technology adoption, product development. There’s enough money. There’s a big enough need….
What I have seen, particularly in our country with this very strong fossil base, but a government that’s been resolute in driving a renewable program [is] new players in the market, young people playing a role. New factories being created. Solar plants, wind farms. It becomes a brand new industry – all created in just three or four years. And so it’s absolutely possible if we’re all just resolute in what we want to do.