{
  "id": 14182713,
  "title": "ITWeb TV Biz: Connecting Africa on cleaner power",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/itweb-tv-biz-connecting-africa-on-cleaner-power",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-13T10:35:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ITWeb",
    "slug": "itweb",
    "url": "https://www.itweb.co.za/article/itweb-tv-biz-connecting-africa-on-cleaner-power/KPNG878NYrPq4mwD"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Vodacom, the leading mobile communications company in Africa, is committed to connecting millions of people across more than 38,000 sites on the continent. However, powering these diverse networks with clean energy presents a challenge, given the unique characteristics of each country's grid. To tackle this issue, Vodacom collaborated with the Carbon Trust to create a white paper titled \"Decarbonising Africa’s ICT Sector,\" which gathered insights from various stakeholders, including data center management, policymakers, bankers, and equipment manufacturers.\n\nNola Richards, Vodacom’s group executive head of ESG and sustainability, emphasized that Vodacom’s role extends beyond digital inclusion to support Africa’s transition to a low-carbon economy. The ICT sector plays a crucial part in this transition, as connectivity enables people to bank, learn, and conduct business. Vodacom has made significant strides in reducing energy consumption per data consumption – the company’s energy usage increased by 4% last year, but the data consumption per gigawatt-hour dropped by 22%.\n\nOne innovative solution Vodacom implemented is its virtual wheeling platform, which allows them to purchase renewable energy from independent power producers and inject it into the Eskom grid. This system is particularly beneficial for regions without space for solar panels, like the 15,000 network sites spread across 168 municipalities. By working with government and its subsidiary Mezzanine, Vodacom helped create regulations for virtual wheeling and built a digital platform to facilitate this process.\n\nVodacom’s collaboration with the ecosystem demonstrates the potential of long-term partnerships to drive change across the continent. Richards highlighted Africa's vast potential for renewable energy generation, including hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind power. She also pointed out the possibility of leveraging carbon capture technologies as a next leapfrog moment for Africa. The lessons learned from the white paper could extend beyond the ICT sector and be applied to various aspects of the economy to achieve the desired digital inclusion.",
  "summary": "ITWeb TV Biz speaks to Nola Richards, group executive head of ESG and sustainable business at Vodacom Group, about how energy efficiency, virtual wheeling and cross-sector partnerships are shaping a lower-carbon future for the continent’s ICT sector.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}