The Russian Energy Week International Forum is to host a roundtable on cooperation between Russia and African nations.
Among the government delegations expected to be represented in the talks on partnership prospects are those of the Republic of the Sudan, Angola, Nigeria, Zambia, and South Africa. Senior executives from Rosatom, Sonangol EP, and Hevel will also be in attendance, as will leading experts and stakeholders in building results-based dialogue on energy between Russia and Africa. The roundtable will be moderated by Nataliya Zaiser, Chair of the Board of Africa Business Initiative.
Russian Energy Week, and the upcoming roundtable in particular, will serve as the venue to discuss strengthening Russian–African ties and to draw up various strategic ways of collaborating to this end.
Speakers at the event will also focus on the development of alternative sources of energy, and there will be the opportunity for participants to share experience in this field. South Africa is already among the top-ten leading producers of solar energy, while Rwanda is home to the first solar power station, which opened in 2014. There are also plans to construct large power stations in Ghana and Uganda.
“The rapid rate at which social infrastructure and extraction industries are developing means that generating capacities and power grids need to be expanded fast. However, environmental considerations must remain at the forefront. Clearly, renewables, and primarily solar energy, will play a key role in the development of the energy industry on the African continent. The decreasing cost of solar energy technology has already made this form of power generation accessible for state needs, and attractive to investors. We are in talks with a range of Russian companies in various extraction industries on the construction of solar power stations. The solutions being proposed will help optimize industrial facilities’ energy supply costs and increase reliability of operations,” said Igor Shakhray, General Director of Hevel and panellist at the upcoming discussion.
