Experts in the built environment have urged property developers to embrace private power generation, warning that Africa’s rapidly expanding cities cannot rely solely on national electricity grids to meet growing energy demand.
The experts spoke at the ‘Keys to the City: Mixer and PitchDay’ summit held on Victoria Island, Lagos, where developers, architects, energy specialists and investors explored sustainable solutions to urban development challenges.
Speaking during a panel session, the Chief Executive Officer of Leoht Capital, Miranghe Pela, said developers must begin integrating independent power solutions into projects from the design stage instead of depending on the national grid.
“The problem of power in this country can be solved to a large extent by private capital. From the architectural stage, begin to think of the solutions. Developers should avoid thinking of the grid but rather, how to provide their own power,” he said.
Pela noted that although many homes and businesses already generated their own electricity using petrol and diesel generators, advances in renewable energy and gas technologies had made self-generation more affordable and sustainable.
“First of all, as of today, it is not like we do not have power or energy. The only challenge is that power, the way it is, is self-generated and is expensive.
“This is because we are using either diesel or fuel. However, there are technologies now that could enable us to still be able to self-generate, but cheaper, that is more affordable, sustainable and that is by way of solar energy or through natural gas. This is because we are already here to submit that the grid is out of the question. So, this is the cheaper way that we can self-generate and the solution to this in terms of finance, is private capital within the economy and the country itself,” he stated.
He added that investors should begin to view power infrastructure as an asset class capable of delivering attractive returns within a relatively short period.
Earlier, the Managing Partner of Co-Design Collectives, Anthony Baba-Oladeji, said reliable electricity would be central to the development of large-scale urban communities across Africa.