The final article in a series on energy markets in Southern Africa explores how the liberalisation of the region’s electricity markets is bringing a shift from purely selling variable electricity towards products that are tailored to specific customer and system needs.
Southern Africa’s renewable energy market appears to be entering a new phase, with companies increasingly looking to package solar, storage and flexibility into products designed around specific customer needs.
Dominic Goncalves, Advisory Partner for Energy Strategy at Cresco Project Finance and Founder & Director of Naviara Energy, told pv magazine that the next race in Southern Africa’s renewable energy market will be to transform variable electricity into differentiated products that solve specific customer needs and system problems.
“Firming is the monetisation of variability: it converts electricity generated when the resource is available into a product delivered when the customer or power system values it most,” Goncalves explained.
“Customers in Southern Africa rarely want the uncontrolled output of an individual renewable plant, they want a solution to a specific energy problem,” he added. “In 2026, there is an emerging product development opportunity and redesigning of commercial strategy towards what customers want, how those products are constructed and which companies may capture the value.”
