Happy Independence Day, Congo Brazzaville! On August 15th, 1960, this central African country gained independence from France. Today we are honoring the country by exploring initiatives that are propelling access to energy in the country. 

Congo Brazzaville, not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa, is a central African country with rich natural resources. The country is among the top 5 oil-producing countries in the South of the Sahara Africa and has minerals such as potash, iron, uranium, titanium, gold, diamonds, tin, and bauxite.  A large percentage of the country’s revenue is dependent on oil earnings. 

In 2020, the International Emergency Agency (IEA) reported that 3 out of 5 people in the Congo do not have access to electricity. Various energy companies have banded together to solve the issue of energy access. One of them, Hélios Électricité, is an energy startup that is making positive impacts on the Point North district of the country. The Congo-based start-up is utilizing a solar power plant it created to install solar panels in the homes of clients. However, issues of access persist with this development, as the cost of these installations ranges from 500 to 6,000 euros, in a country where half of the population lives in poverty.

(Congolese women carry goods in Congo-Brazzaville. Image by Boussou Gaston via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mouyondzi,_Congo-Brazzaville._Retour_des_champs.jpg )

Eni is an energy company based in the Port Novo district of Congo Brazzaville. In 2007, they created a SMART strategy to provide access to electricity in the county. Currently, they supply between 60% to 70% of the country’s electricity. With their impact, they have been able to build CED and CEC power plants in the country, open three gas turbines, upgrade energy transport infrastructure, and install 6,500 lamps that reached 350,000 people. This effort is the product of a partnership between Congo Brazzaville and the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy.

Learn more about this progress here.

Do you know of any Black owned solar energy companies that focus on Africa?

Comment below!

Works Cited

https://www.africanews.com/2020/12/14/solar-power-could-be-the-green-energy-solution-for-congo//

https://www.britannica.com/place/Republic-of-the-Congo

https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/COG

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/congo/overview

https://www.eni.com/en-IT/operations/congo-energy-access-project.html