Africa's Energy Transition Needs Local Infrastructure, Not Just Global Ambition
On 15th January, International Development Minister Andrew Murrison visited Clarke Energy's facility in Knowsley, Merseyside, to open a new engine repair and overhaul centre. Five days later, the UK-Africa Investment Summit took place in London which I was honoured to speak at, bringing together heads of state, business leaders, and investors to talk about the future of UK-Africa trade. It was a significant week and for those of us working in Africa's energy sector, it felt like a moment of genuine momentum.
I want to reflect on what that moment represents, because I think the conversation about Africa's energy transition is often held at the wrong altitude.
The Gap Between Ambition and Infrastructure
There is no shortage of ambition when it comes to Africa's energy future. The continent has extraordinary renewable energy potential. The demographic trajectory is clear by 2050, more than two billion people will live in Africa, representing one in four global consumers. The investment case, stated in those terms, is compelling.
But ambition without infrastructure delivers nothing. And the infrastructure challenge in Africa's power sector is not primarily about generation capacity in the abstract. It is about reliable, resilient, locally maintainable power the kind that keeps a hospital running during a grid outage, that gives a manufacturing business in Kano the confidence to invest and hire, that means a community doesn't lose power every time there is a fault on a transmission line hundreds of kilometres away.
That is the problem Clarke Energy is actually working on, in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, and elsewhere. Not megawatt headlines, but functioning power plants, installed, commissioned, maintained, and when necessary repaired and returned to service.
Why the Overhaul and Repair Centre Matters
The engine overhaul and repair centre that Minister Murrison opened in Knowsley is a small facility in the grand scheme of UK-Africa trade. But what it represents is important: a commitment to the full lifecycle of the assets we deploy, not just the initial sale.
One of the persistent failures in infrastructure development across Africa has been the installation of equipment that works well initially and then deteriorates because local maintenance capacity is insufficient and international support is slow or expensive to access. Clarke Energy's model is built around avoiding that failure. The Knowsley centre exists to ensure that gas engines can be overhauled to the highest standards and returned to service efficiently supporting the long-term reliability of the power plants our customers depend on.
That matters for the energy transition argument, too. A gas engine running at full efficiency on a well-maintained plant produces significantly less emissions per unit of power generated than the same engine running degraded, or than a diesel generator filling the gap left by a failed plant. Maintenance is not a peripheral concern in the clean energy story. It is central to it.
Distributed Generation as the Right Architecture for Africa
The broader point I would make and one that I think deserves more prominence in discussions about Africa's energy future is that distributed, resilient, local power generation is not a second-best option compared to large centralised infrastructure. For much of Africa, it is the right architecture, full stop.
Grid extension is slow and expensive. Transmission losses are significant. Central generation capacity means nothing to a business or community that sits at the end of an unreliable distribution network. Distributed power generation; gas engines, hybrid systems, and increasingly renewable and biogas technologies, puts generation capacity close to where it is needed, reduces transmission dependency, and can be designed from the outset with islanding and resilience in mind.
The projects Clarke Energy is delivering in Kano and across Nigeria and East Africa are not interim solutions pending a future grid. They are the appropriate response to the energy access challenge those markets actually face, and they are delivering real outcomes for businesses and communities now.
What British Businesses Can Contribute
The UK government's support for Clarke Energy's Africa work through UKEF financing, DIT trade support, and the diplomatic engagement that helps navigate complex markets has been genuinely valuable. I said as much to Minister Murrison during his visit, and I meant it.
The knowledge the UK Government has both locally in the North West and across Africa is outstanding. It has helped us navigate markets with real political complexity, cultural differences, and challenging operating environments. That kind of joined-up support — government and business working in the same direction is what makes it possible for a company based in Knowsley to be delivering power infrastructure on another continent.
The UK-Africa Investment Summit is an opportunity to deepen that partnership. But the most important thing British businesses can bring to Africa's energy transition is not capital alone. It is technical expertise, long-term commitment, and the willingness to build the maintenance and support infrastructure that makes installed assets work over time. That is a less glamorous pitch than a headline investment figure. It is also the thing that actually changes outcomes on the ground.