Does Europe need “historically low energy costs” if neighbouring Africa is brimming with green energy?
An industry that operates on coal, oil, and gas must stop in 25 years. An unprecedented transition that requires huge amounts of green electricity. Hitting the climate pause button only leads to more flooding in industrialised countries and hunger in non-industrialised countries.
Africa's abundant, omnipresent renewable energy can drive the industrialisation of the entire continent and save the whole planet.
Africa’s industrialisation pushes Europe - instead of subsidising energy-intensive industries of the last century - and enabled by robotics and AI, to innovate more quickly in high-tech products that are more climate-friendly and more recyclable. Europe’s industrial aggiornamento creates decent employment for every former steelworker and every former employee in the chemical industry. Jobs characterised by less heavy repetitive manual labour, where people can feel useful for longer and compensate for Europe's demographic disadvantage.
The GRAND INGA gigantic 44GW hydropower project in the DR Congo with an electrical capacity equal to that of 35 ultra-modern nuclear power plants at 1/5 the cost/MW of nuclear electricity
The Noor 582 MW solar power complex in Ouarzazate-Morocco stores solar energy in the form of heated molten salt, allowing for production of electricity into the night
Technical potential for the production of green hydrogen at less than € 2/kg
(in exajoules) (IRENA)
- Africa 35%
- Middle East 14%
- North America 14%
- Oceania 13%
- Latin America 12%; Asia 9%
- Europe 1%
A recommendation
European giants in hydraulic engineering and electrical engineering are carrying out the giant GRAND INGA hydropower project.
Expected results:
- the industrialisation of the entire Africa;
- lays the foundations for a “AU-EU Community for Energy-Intensive Industry”;
- a renaissance of the EU industry;
- saves the entire planet.
- Shouldn't Europe prepare itself that, despite mega-subsidies for nuclear renaissance, for CO2 capture and storage and pipeline boulevards for CO2/GH2, energy-guzzling industries will move sooner rather than later to locations near the source of affordable green hydrogen?
- Is it indicated to invest good European tax money in mid-tech energy-intensive industries of the last century when experienced profit-hungry investors in Africa, 15km from Europe, see a new growth market with enormous opportunities?
Press clippings related to the climate transition, the cost of energy, the re-industrialisation of Europe
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De Standaard 19/10/2024 (Pascal Sertyn) Concerns about greening plan of Ghent steel factory of ArcelorMittal (in Duth)
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De Standaard 18/10/2024 (Ruben Mooijman) Does Europe help developing countries or mainly itself? (in Duth)
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De Tijd 17/9/2024 (Danny Van Assche-UNIZO, Hans Maertens-VOKA) Focus on Africa, the largest growth market in the world (in Duth)
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De Standaard 22/5/2024 (Lieven Sioen) A task for the next government:realizing “historically low energy costs” (in Duth)
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De Standaard 21/5/2024 (Stijn Decock) Government no longer wants to passively watch the sell-off of Belgium (in Duth)
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De Standaard 17/5/2024 (Korneel Delbeke) Cement giant Holcim and Europe invest half a billion in green cement factory in Wallonia. Prime Minister De Croo: ‘If we want to tackle climate change, we must keep the heavy industry in Europe. Otherwise, it will simply produce elsewhere, where the rules are less strict.’
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De Standaard 11/5/2024 (Wim Winckelmans), Germany and France clash over energy model: “The French have plans to build fourteen new reactors by 2050.” (Cost per reactor: € 12+ billion. Macron is looking for European support. Construction time: 20 years)
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De Tijd 19/9/2022 (Thomas Leysen) "If you produce aluminum in Europe at much higher electricity costs than in other parts of the world, what is the point of supporting these companies if you can produce cheaper elsewhere in the world"
China Pulls Out Of DR Congo’s Grand Inga Dam Project, Leaving Future In Doubt.
China’s exit from the Grand Inga Dam project adds to ongoing delays and uncertainties. The $80 billion hydroelectric project, aimed at addressing Africa’s energy crisis, faces environmental and governance concerns. (The Daily Guardian - India 29/1/2025)
Update 25/4/2025 The nuclear renaissance (Wim Winckelmans / De Standaard)
If the new nuclear reactors come, they will play a supporting role (16/4/2025)
If a new nuclear reactor is connected to the grid by 2040, it can be called an achievement. But with the nuclear capacity that the federal government has in mind, their contribution to tomorrow's energy system will be limited.
“Putting all new nuclear reactors in Doel and Tihange will not succeed” (18/4/2025)
If Belgium wants to build new nuclear reactors, where should they be located? The search for a suitable location in our built-up country is probably the biggest challenge.
New nuclear power plants have a price tag of at least 40 billion (19/4/2025)
In our neighboring countries, a state-owned company bears the financial responsibility for the construction of new nuclear reactors. Is that also possible in Belgium, which is facing major budgetary challenges?
Cheapest path to climate neutrality almost unattainable (25/4/2025)
Belgium should have 8 gigawatts of offshore wind energy available in 2030 to stay on the 'cost-optimal' path towards climate neutrality. But we will probably end up with a maximum of 3 gigawatts.
Le nucléaire se cherche un nouveau débouché avec les petits réacteurs
L’emballement médiatique autour des SMR contraste avec une réalité beaucoup moins prometteuse.
Nuclear is seeking a new outlet with small reactors.
The media frenzy surrounding SMRs contrasts with a reality that is much less promising.
(Alternatives Economiques 8/4/2025)
China is building the world’s biggest hydropower dam. China breaks ground on what Premier Li Qiang has called the ‘project of the century’. It is estimated to cost around (US$167 billion), dwarfing many of the biggest infrastructure undertakings in modern history at around five times the cost of the Three Gorges Dam and even more expensive than the International Space Station. China aims to establish a clean energy hub in the region, stabilising the grid while reducing reliance on coal. The project is also expected to boost local employment, infrastructure and livelihoods in Tibet while prioritising ecological protection through rigorous geological surveys and environmental monitoring, The mega dam will anchor an unprecedented wave of industrial and infrastructure investment in Tibet. (South China Morning Post 19/7/2025)
The delusion of heavy industry in Europe
- The Economist (18/3/2024) headlines that “Subsidies for heavy industry harm the world economy”
- In the Financial Times (18/3/2024), Claudia Buch, responsible for banking supervision at the European Central Bank, warns of geopolitical risks and a revolution in mid-tech energy-intensive industries of the last century that will continue to face high energy prices: “Europe's industrial regions will look very different in the future, depending on the availability of renewable energy in different countries."
Less strict rules in China?
But what if China continues to invest in the € 100 billion GRAND INGA gigantic hydropower project in DR CONGO, upon completion after ten years, good for 44 GW of “green” electricity? An equivalent to 35 of the most advanced nuclear reactors, at one-fifth of the cost of nuclear energy, located 135 navigable kilometers from Banana, a deep-sea port at the mouth of the Congo River in the Atlantic Ocean. And produces green hydrogen there at € 2/kg and green cement, and green steel, and green aluminum, and green ethylene, and green ceramic materials, and green recycles e-scrap, and builds green data centers.
Climate and shareholder activism
An unexpected collusion of climate and shareholder activists could well force the BASF's, Total Energy's, INEOS's, ArcelorMittal's and Holcim's of this world to relocate to regions in the world with affordable GH2 and future growth markets. Shareholder activists expect that upon the announcement of their relocation to the GH2-rich three-country triangle “DR-Congo - Congo-Brazzaville - Angola” their stock market price will skyrocket. Climate activists see a reduction in CO2 emissions in Europe and Africa by thirty percent thanks to the climate-friendly energy-intensive production and transport of basic materials that twenty-five percent of the world's population in Africa is also entitled to.
Work for every former employee in steel and chemistry
An industry that runs on coal, oil and gas until today and must stop in 25 years. An unprecedented transition that requires massive amounts of green electricity. Pressing climate pause buttons only leads to more flooding in industrialised countries and hunger in non-industrialised countries. Why not, instead of investing in thousands of visually polluting Eiffel Tower wind turbines on land and pipeline boulevards, work innovatively on the creation of decent work for every former steel worker and every employee in the chemical industry? Certainly when at 15 km from Europe a continent is blessed iwith masses of unexploited eternally renewable hydro and solar energy sources. For example, the GRAND INGA project in DR Congo, upon completion good for the production of as much green electricity as 35 electro-nuclear reactors at one-fifth of the cost of nuclear energy.
A project based on standard tested technology and without nuclear waste or unprecedented cost for decommissioning after 60 years, without danger of fall-out after tsunamis or military aggression.
A project based in continent with soon 25% of the world's population that craves – and has a right to – a modern Western society model with education, social provisions, medical care, recreational opportunities and freedom for everyone. A model only possible thanks to infrastructures such as energy-guzzling steel, aluminum, petrochemical and cement industries.
A continent, however, that, thanks to its exuberantly present cheap energy sources, can massively generate truly green hydrogen for the emission-free production and transport of the aforementioned basic materials to the new growth markets... which happen to be on the same continent.
Jobs? Demographic disadvantage Europe?
Africa needs 20 million new jobs per year and is blessed with abundant renewable energy. Europe is currently facing tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of open vacancies that cannot be filled. Shouldn't Europe, despite an immense surplus of workers in Africa, refrain from using Africa as a granary of raw materials, of green energy and of workers? The climate-friendly industrialisation of Africa, thanks to a Europe-driven emission-free creation of energy-hungry industries and of a thousand modern SME partnerships Africa-Europe from the agro-, food- and manufacturing industries and related services, act as a flywheel for the creation of 20 million formal jobs in Africa. They create the largest new growth market in the world, also open to European high-tech innovative climate-friendlier and recyclable products and services with high added value.
An economically diversified Africa leads to normal migration in both directions and to multicultural cross-pollination of experiences and competences.
The modern industrialisation of Africa forces Europe to innovate faster in high-tech climate-friendlier and recyclable products, including with the help of robotics and A.I., with less heavy repetitive manual labor where people can feel useful for longer and compensate for the demographic disadvantage of Europe.
European “boomers” can also be assisted during their last years of life, not by robots from Flanders Technology and A.I., but by intelligent care or nurses of flesh and blood, not yet needed in large numbers in “young” Africa but in “aging” Europe.
No taxpayer money.
The start of GRAND INGA is faltering. Therefore, the suggestion that at the beginning of 2026, as a top priority and with utmost urgency, a consortium of leading EU industrialists in the field of civil, hydraulic, and electrical engineering, their bankers, the EIB and the World Bank, supported by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Merz, British Prime Minister Starmer, and Belgian Prime Minister, proposes to President Tshisekedi of the DRCongo a public-private partnership to finance, build, and operate "his" 44GW GRAND INGA project. The consortium of leading companies, experienced in the field, along with their bankers, builds and operates the €100 billion project. European governments only act as lobbyists to the Congolese president and offer him "EU Global Gateway" guarantees.
Circular Know-How Economy Africa-Europe
11/11/2024
Update 25/7/2025
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