Other Videos

Lekela: delivering clean, reliable energy across Africa

Lekela: Energising A Continent Through Wind Power

Over the next twenty years around half the world’s projected population growth is forecasted to occur in Africa. This
is set to heighten the challenge of providing power on a continent where around 600 million people currently lack
access to electricity. Sustainable economic growth on the continent has been held back by a lack of access to reliable
and affordable energy. With many parts of Africa proving particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, it
has become crucially important that efforts are made to establish sustainable sources of energy that will positively
impact climate mitigation.

Lekela is a company with a clear mission: to deliver long-term benefits and sustainable returns for African countries
and communities through clean, reliable power. A relative newcomer, the company was set up in 2015 – the same
year that the Paris Climate Accords were ratified to bring all nations together to combat climate change. Lekela’s
vision is to become a best-in-class provider of clean power in Africa and currently has projects in Egypt, Ghana,
Senegal and South Africa.

The appeal of renewable energy, according to Lekela, is that it is clean and affordable. Lekela’s Parc Eolien Taiba
N’Diaye (PETN) project in Senegal is a fine example of how the company is delivering clean and affordable power in
Africa. As the country’s first utility scale wind farm, it will deploy 158.7 megawatts of wind energy by the middle of
2020. This is a 15% increase in electricity generation capacity for the country, providing power for over 2 million
people.

An important factor in Lekela’s work in Africa is the company’s commitment to helping local communities. Their
involvement is long-term and designed to last through the 20-year lifetime of the project, typically investing in
education and skills development, enterprise development, environmental projects and access to energy initiatives
as set out in their Community Investment Strategy. For example, in Senegal, the company has assisted in enterprise
development by setting up local markets for the women in communities to be able to trade and market their
produce, improved education by developing local educational facilities like an information technology centre for the
local high school, as well as making improvements to local agriculture, providing vocational training and
opportunities for young members of the community and improving local infrastructure. Such work demonstrates
Lekela’s determination to build a lasting positive impact in their host communities and is integral to the way the
company does business.

Lekela’s mission to exclusively focus on clean energy in Africa sought to address the energy challenge and
demonstrate that the continent can be a leader in renewable power. This approach is reaping positive results; the
company’s current projects will provide over 1,300 megawatts to Africa’s renewable energy capacity and save 3.4
million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Additionally, Lekela looks to be an industry leader, working to educate
and influence the wider energy community by sharing their knowledge and becoming involved in events such as the
annual Africa Energy Forum and the UK-Africa Investment Summit. This allows them to show the wider industry that
operating sustainably is not only possible, but beneficial.

Africa’s power needs are substantial, and with the added pressure of climate change and its impacts, the situation
becomes even more complex. Focusing on energy delivery is only one aspect of the equation, and can come at the
expense of local communities, the environment and the climate. It is to Lekela’s credit that their operating methods
accommodate for all these challenges, while still delivering stand-out achievements in the continent’s power sector.