Lydia Shangu holds a master’s degree in communication sciences and a bachelor’s in geology from the University of South Africa. Through her leadership as the founder and general manager of SBS Petroleum Research Institute, she seeks to address a range of challenges faced by Africa’s investors.

“The African network has sufficient power to meet the needs of those connected. Now, let’s implement off-grid solutions and fully exploit Africa’s vast RE resources.”

Shangu believes that Africa’s most significant challenges include acquiring financing for energy projects and achieving universal access to modern energy.

Therefore, she suggests that the energy industry should focus on expanding national electricity networks and avoiding low quality materials.

This is especially pertinent as she appreciates the difference energy access makes in people’s lives. She shares how she first came to appreciate this when she learnt that 15% of the world’s population lives without electricity access.

Based on 1990 research papers, she found that just over 71% of the global population had access to electricity, and in 2016, this rose to over 90%.

“When I broke this down to average daily change, it means that in an average day over the last 12 years, we had 315,800 people who had access to electricity for the first time in their lives.”

If she were a minister, her first decree would be to make renewable energy a national priority and set a strict target for a percentage of electricity to be produced from resources such as wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and hydropower.

As Shangu’s talents and skills lie in research, she is driven by this skill to diagnose problems, search for new strategies and analyse and generate new ideas.

“We have environmental issues directly associated with energy production and use, in particular air pollution, climate change, water pollution, heat pollution and also solid waste disposal, which affect fuel supply and the physical resilience of existing and future energy infrastructure.”

As such, if she were invited to present a keynote address at an international event, she would title it Shaping the renewable energy transition in Africa.

Her presentation’s focus would be the opportunities for innovative power development and improvements in the lives of billions in communities.

“We have already witnessed how the energy transition has played a vital role in the African region’s rapid and creative economic growth.”

Through research, she would measure the ambitions and progress of the energy transition members in Africa in achieving global, regional and country-sustainable energy goals and discuss the possible solutions to addressing key innovation challenges.

She is also intensely interested in enabling organisations and partners to develop forward-looking businesses from a business, customer and brand perspective.

Shangu leverages her experience and expertise in marketing, energy, petroleum and media through her company to develop advanced mutually beneficial and long-term relationships with her clients.

“The thing that keeps me motivated for my work is the fact that I always come up with creative ideas for improvement. I’m also keen on coaching others and developing my professional networks.”

Similarly, Shangu is inspired by Steve Harvey’s New York Times bestseller, Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success.

Overall, she reveals that her blue-sky vision for Africa’s energy market is to build a long-term plan to expand access to reliable and affordable energy using diversified sources and speed up the implementation of critical energy projects in Africa.

“The African network has sufficient power to meet the needs of those connected. Now, let’s implement off-grid solutions and fully exploit Africa’s vast renewable energy resources.”

Allowing herself to dream big, Shangu would ideally like to see an electrification rate of 85% by 2030 on the continent. However, to achieve these goals, she acknowledges that regional integration needs strengthening to increase energy supply and demand efficiency and effectiveness.

National funds also need to be improved through regional integration, effective management of assets, mobilisation of available resources and commitment to driving GDP growth through electrification. ESI