The world is wasting clean power while Africa still lacks electricity 

There is something uncomfortable about the way the global energy transition is unfolding. 

In some parts of the world, renewable electricity is being produced in quantities that the local grid cannot always absorb. Solar and wind projects are increasingly being curtailed because there is not enough transmission capacity or storage at that moment. 

Elsewhere, millions of people still lack dependable electricity. 

Put these realities together and you get one of the strangest contradictions in the global energy economy: the world can have too much clean electricity in one place and too little in another. 

These are frequently discussed as two different energy problems, yet they point to a common weakness. The world has become remarkably good at building electricity generation, but far less effective at building the systems that connect that generation with the people and economic activities that need it. 

The next phase of the energy transition, therefore, cannot be only about adding more solar panels and wind turbines. Generation is only the starting point. Electricity has to be transmitted, distributed, stored, managed and, ultimately, put to productive use. 

Without those pieces, even abundant renewable energy can remain economically stranded. 

Africa exposes the gap 

Africa brings this contradiction into exceptionally sharp focus. Around 600 million people, nearly 43% of the continent’s population, remain without access to electricity. 

At the same time, the continent has some of the world’s greatest renewable energy potential, particularly solar. It is estimated to hold around 60% of the world’s solar potential, yet receives less than 3% of global energy investment, according to UNECA. 

The question, then, is not simply whether Africa needs more electricity. It is why such enormous renewable potential remains so difficult to turn into reliable power where it is needed most. 

For businesses and industries, unreliable electricity means higher operating costs, interrupted production and less incentive to invest. An energy problem quickly becomes an economic constraint. A country may have the resources, workforce and market to support growth, but without dependable power, much of that potential remains difficult to realise. 

This is why energy access cannot be viewed simply as a question of connecting more households. The more important question is what reliable electricity allows households, businesses and economies to do. 

The other side of the energy equation 

Now look at the other side of the system. 

Solar and wind farms in renewable-rich markets are sometimes producing more electricity than the grid can absorb. The reasons are familiar: insufficient transmission, limited storage and demand that does not line up with supply. 

Some curtailment is inevitable. Demand changes, weather shifts and electricity systems have to remain balanced. But persistent curtailment can also indicate that renewable generation has expanded faster than the infrastructure needed to absorb and use it. 

Seen together, the two situations point to the same weakness in the global energy system. We are building generation faster than we are building the systems that make that generation useful. 

The numbers make the contradiction harder to ignore 

Estimates put global renewable curtailment at roughly 200 TWh a year. This should be treated as an order-of-magnitude estimate rather than a precise global figure, since countries do not use a common methodology for measuring curtailment. 

The scale becomes striking when placed alongside Africa’s electricity access challenge. 

If 600 million people were provided a modest 100 kWh per person a year, the requirement would be around 60 TWh. At 500 kWh per person, it would be 300 TWh. 

The comparison does not mean that curtailed electricity in China, Europe or elsewhere can simply be transported to Africa. Electricity is tied to particular grids, locations and moments in time. 

But the arithmetic highlights something important: the world can have substantial clean electricity that cannot be used in one place while millions remain without reliable electricity somewhere else. 

The problem, therefore, is not simply how much renewable energy the world can produce. It is whether we have built the infrastructure, markets and institutions needed to put that energy to work. 

The missing investment is not just generation 

This is particularly relevant to Africa because the continent’s challenge is not a lack of renewable resources. It is the distance between those resources and the ability to turn them into dependable economic activity. 

A solar project may have excellent resources behind it, but that does not automatically make it a viable investment. The electricity still needs a transmission route. The utility needs to be able to pay for it. Customers need to be able to afford and use it. Losses need to be controlled. Investors need confidence that the system around the project will function. 

Investors, in other words, are not investing in sunlight or wind alone. They are investing in the system around a project. 

If the grid cannot absorb the electricity, the utility cannot reliably pay for it, electricity delivery cannot be accurately measured, or technical losses and theft undermine revenues, even an otherwise attractive renewable project becomes difficult to finance. 

That is why some of the least visible parts of the energy transition may turn out to be among the most important. 

Transmission and distribution networks, storage, digital metering, better grid management and stronger regional electricity markets may not attract the same attention as a new solar farm or wind project. But they determine whether renewable electricity can reach consumers, be managed reliably and ultimately create economic value. 

Something as unglamorous as digital metering and real-time visibility of the grid can therefore become critical. Before electricity systems can be made more efficient, operators need to know where power is going, where it is being lost and where demand actually exists. 

The question should be where electricity creates value 

This changes the investment question. 

Rather than asking only where the next renewable project can be built most cheaply, it may be worth asking where new electricity can unlock the most economic activity. 

In some places, that will mean more generation. In others, the priority may be a transmission line connecting renewable power to an industrial centre, storage that makes intermittent supply more dependable, or a distribution upgrade that allows businesses to connect and operate reliably. 

The most valuable investment may not always be the one that produces the most electricity. It may be the one that makes electricity useful. 

This also suggests that Africa should not necessarily follow the same infrastructure sequence followed by developed economies. There is an opportunity to build large renewable projects alongside distributed systems, add storage earlier, digitise distribution networks as they expand and develop industrial demand around new sources of power. 

Regional interconnections could be particularly important. A larger electricity market can balance differences in generation and demand across countries, making renewable resources more useful and the system more resilient. 

None of this is straightforward. There are financing risks, regulatory challenges, weak utilities, infrastructure gaps and political realities. But that is precisely why the conversation needs to move beyond the number of megawatts being installed. 

The value of electricity is what it makes possible 

A renewable project that cannot reliably deliver its electricity cannot realise its full value. A grid connection that reaches a household but cannot support productive activity leaves another part of the opportunity untapped. 

And the cost of that unrealised opportunity is difficult to capture in conventional energy statistics. 

It shows up instead in investments that do not happen, businesses that cannot expand and industries that never get built. 

This is why renewable curtailment deserves to be looked at differently. It is not simply electricity that was produced and then wasted. It is a signal that the relationship between generation, infrastructure, investment and demand is not working as well as it could. 

Africa’s electricity deficit, in turn, is not simply evidence that the continent needs more generation. It is evidence of the enormous economic value waiting to be unlocked by a functioning electricity system. 

The next stage of the energy transition, therefore, cannot be only about producing more clean power. It must be about connecting clean power to places where it can change lives and support economies. 

Bridging those gaps would not eliminate Africa’s energy challenge overnight. But it could change the terms of the conversation from providing electricity as an end in itself to using electricity as the foundation for development. 

And that may be the opportunity hiding inside the world’s renewable curtailment problem. 

About the author 

Suresh Yadav is Senior Director for Climate Change, Ocean and Energy in the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. He is a senior global policy leader with extensive experience across climate action, AI, oceans governance, energy transition, and digital transformation.