How to solve the looming energy crisis

It has been a planning school mantra since the inception of town and country planning that “when designing human settlements, make provision for adequate energy efficiency”. Maximum energy efficiency can be achieved through the siting of land parcels to enable buildings to have adequate supply of sunlight and ability to cool off in summers and warm themselves during winters.

In the recent past major power cuts and outages have hit several countries globally and in our immediate region. Explosive population growth coupled with expansive industrial activities have led to ballooning energy demand while energy supply continues to dwindle due to energy supply shortages, destruction of energy infrastructure (including sabotage) and corruption in energy sector procurement.

Lesotho seems to be currently on the safe side of stable electricity supply and caution and economical use of energy should guide us going forward. Reports suggest that Lesotho gets its electricity supply from the ‘Muela Power Plant, Eskom South Africa and Mozambique. If that is the case, it means we have to use our current electricity /energy more efficiently so that we are able to sustain our economy in the long term.

In the modern era, more and more economic activities rely on stable and reliable energy supply. We need reliable energy for our mines, hospitals, industries and for our households. Reliable and stable energy supply also leads to stable democracies which are a necessary prerequisites for viable investment opportunities for both domestic and foreign investors.

Energy satisfied citizens are less likely to become saboteurs of energy infrastructure especially if that energy stability leads to economic growth, employment creation and less inequality.

Given the above discussion, one would ask what the role of the urban and regional planner is. Urban and regional planners are basically the people who design our human settlements for optimal utilisation of resources for satisfaction of our land use needs while also safeguarding the natural environment against our misuse.

Their duty in the energy supply, distribution, transmission and security cannot be overemphasised. Planners decide the suitable location of power plants, transmission lines and appropriate resettlement options paying close attention to the socio economic implications caused by the establishment of these mega infrastructure projects. The very need to generate, distribute and transmit energy is caused by the creation of new and expansion of existing built environment which is the semi-exclusive domain of physical planners. While there are professionals and experts in the energy sector, theirs is to respond to the mess created by the planners by allowing the growth of human settlements which in turn lead to increased energy demand.

Looking into the near future, global energy security will likely be in the doldrums, some blame the Russian invasion of Ukraine for this. What is needed to curb the looming problem of energy insecurity in Lesotho is the proactive engagement of different stakeholders to solve this crisis.

We see the effects of the national blackouts in our neighbouring country which unfortunately affect our siblings in our other districts who use electricity imported directly from our neighbour.

What our government can do is simple yet costly. It has to cause people to have a culture of being prepared to pay for the services they consume, whether as individuals in households, businesses or government ministries, departments and agencies.

The national power utility company sometimes have users who default on their due electricity payments causing it to be unable to maintain its plants and fail to procure enough energy for our needs.

The government should therefore set up a system of incentives which would encourage households to use more solar and wind generated energy to run their household needs. These incentives could be in the form of tax breaks for companies that sell and install solar and wind power systems.

There could also be direct grants offered to the actual households who use a certain percentage of these renewable energy sources in order to motivate more households to get off the national grid and lower its burden. Moreover, the government could subsidise renewable energy infrastructure like it is doing with the agricultural inputs for the summer cropping season.

Local authorities should not issue planning and building permits to persons who are desirous of constructing rental housing without being satisfied that new buildings have adequate plans on how they are going to use renewable energy sources. Individual housing should also be highly encouraged to have measures of using renewable energy.

These incentives would go a long way in safeguarding our energy security. The national grid would be left to be used mainly by heavy energy users such as the industrial estates, manufacturers, large businesses, hospitals and the mines.

This way, our productive capacity as a country would be enhanced due to the lack of power outages. Our economic growth would improve and we would be the country in the region that would be competitive enough to attract more foreign investors.

Lastly, it would guarantee our national security. This is not the only solution to the looming energy crisis, but it would be one of the possible solutions to our looming predicament.

Disclaimer: Kelebone Lekunya and Retšelisitsoe Selometsi are qualified urban planners and they write strictly in their personal capacity.