Energy efficiency

Lighting is present in every electrified building and is used in the evening, when other loads are also high. For newly connected and low-consumption households it is often the largest single use of electricity, and in commercial and public buildings linear lighting operating for many hours a day is one of the largest loads. Global supply chains have largely moved to LED technology, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury is phasing out fluorescent lamps between 2025 and 2027.

Electric motor systems, meaning motors and the pumps, fans, compressors and machines they drive, use about 53% of global electricity. Energy accounts for more than 95% of a motorʼs life-cycle cost, so a modest gain in efficiency repays a higher purchase price quickly. Most motors in Africa are imported, many of them inside equipment, and many are repaired and rewound during their lives. Motor standards therefore matter most to industry, mining, agriculture and water supply, the productive sectors on which African economies depend.

A refrigerator runs around the clock and is among the largest loads in a grid-connected household; an air conditioner, where present, is usually the largest. Cooling demand is growing fast: the IEA estimated the global stock of air conditioners at 1.6 billion units in 2016, rising to around 5.6 billion by 2050 in the absence of new policy. African markets remain dominated by older technology: in Ghana about 96% of air conditioners were fixed-speed, and in Nigeria 19% of models in shops still used R-22, an ozone-depleting refrigerant.

Minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and the energy labels that accompany them are among the most cost-effective instruments available to African governments for meeting rising energy demand. By setting a mandatory efficiency floor for the appliances and equipment entering a market, MEPS remove the least efficient products from sale and shift markets towards products that cost less to run. This summary sets out the opportunity, what the handbook provides and how it is intended to be used.

Africa’s energy sector faces major challenges that hinder socio-economic development, including limited generation capacity, inefficient transmission, high fuel import costs, unreliable supply, and heavy reliance on traditional biomass, while demand-side issues such as low access to electricity and clean cooking solutions and the prevalence of inefficient appliances further compound the situation.

Over the past decade, the ECOWAS region has recorded a steady rise in Total Final Energy Consumption (TFEC), growing at an average annual rate of 3.85%, in line with the region’s economic expansion. In 2022, TFEC reached 129,871 ktoe, representing 23.5% of Africa’s total, with Nigeria accounting for 56.2% of regional consumption. Biomass remains dominant, constituting 60% of the energy mix, followed by petroleum products (33.1%) and electricity (5.5%).

This Regional Savings Assessment report provides a summary of the benefits attained from improved energy efficiency and climate friendly lighting, cooling appliances and equipment for the Southern African Region. The assessment is available in English, Portuguese and French.