Clarke Energy to Sell GE’s Jenbacher Gas Engines in 6 More African Countries

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

To better serve the growing power and grid reliability needs in Africa, GE’s Distributed Power announced that it has recently signed an agreement with Clarke Energy to serve as GE’s distributor of Jenbacher gas engines for six additional countries in Africa, including Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and Rwanda.

With this agreement, Clarke Energy is now a distributor of GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in 25 countries worldwide.

“Energy generation in Africa is being caught between two opposing pressures—power demand, particularly from industry, and chronic power shortages and service interruptions. As part of its heavy investment in Africa’s energy future, GE offers gas engine technologies and renewables solutions to help bridge the supply-and-demand gap, creating more energy self-sufficiency for African companies and reducing the industrial carbon footprint,” said Didier Lartigue, managing director, Clarke Energy. “In response to Africa’s energy situation, Clarke Energy is installing GE’s advanced gas-fueled Jenbacher gas engines to provide dependable on-site power for African companies.”

The continent of Africa is made up of more than 50 countries, and the average per capita energy consumption growth is about 4.1 percent per year. Particularly in South Africa, the public grid can’t keep pace with that greater demand, and in peak hours, there is a critical shortage of reserve capacity. The imbalance—which has prompted national utilities to enforce load shedding (i.e. rationing) by implementing planned outages—is so big that a recent McKinsey & Company study estimates that sub-Saharan Africa needs capital investment of about $835 billion by 2040 to be able to supply the continent’s growing electricity demand[1].

“As industry in Africa looks for ways to relieve the demand on the grid’s strained resources by providing as much of its own energy as possible, many African companies are looking to GE to supply them with alternative energy solutions such as our Jenbacher gas engine technology,” said Wouter-Jan van der Wurff, general manager, channel for GE’s Distributed Power. “Through our distributor, Clarke Energy, we are able to collaborate with customers in Africa to help secure Africa’s energy future by expanding the use of cleaner distributed-energy technologies to enhance local energy reliability.”

With the addition of this agreement, Clarke Energy is now a distributor for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in 25 countries, including Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Ghana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.