GE Announces Clarke Energy as a Jenbacher Gas Engines Distributor for an Additional Six Countries in Africa

To better serve the growing power and grid reliability needs in Africa, GE’s Distributed Power announced that it has recently signed an agreement with Clarke Energy to serve as GE’s distributor of Jenbacher gas engines for six additional countries in Africa, including Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and Rwanda. With this agreement, Clarke Energy is now a distributor of GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in 25 countries worldwide.

“Energy generation in Africa is being caught between two opposing pressures—power demand, particularly from industry, and chronic power shortages and service interruptions. As part of its heavy investment in Africa’s energy future, GE offers gas engine technologies and renewables solutions to help bridge the supply-and-demand gap, creating more energy self-sufficiency for African companies and reducing the industrial carbon footprint,” said Didier Lartigue, managing director, Clarke Energy. “In response to Africa’s energy situation, Clarke Energy is installing GE’s advanced gas-fueled Jenbacher gas engines to provide dependable on-site power for African companies.”

The continent of Africa is made up of more than 50 countries, and the average per capita energy consumption growth is about 4.1 percent per year. Particularly in South Africa, the public grid can’t keep pace with that greater demand, and in peak hours, there is a critical shortage of reserve capacity. The imbalance—which has prompted national utilities to enforce load shedding (i.e. rationing) by implementing planned outages—is so big that a recent McKinsey & Company study estimates that sub-Saharan Africa needs capital investment of about $835 billion by 2040 to be able to supply the continent’s growing electricity demand.

“As industry in Africa looks for ways to relieve the demand on the grid’s strained resources by providing as much of its own energy as possible, many African companies are looking to GE to supply them with alternative energy solutions such as our Jenbacher gas engine technology,” said Wouter-Jan van der Wurff, general manager, channel for GE’s Distributed Power. “Through our distributor, Clarke Energy, we are able to collaborate with customers in Africa to help secure Africa’s energy future by expanding the use of cleaner distributed-energy technologies to enhance local energy reliability.”

With the addition of this agreement, Clarke Energy is now a distributor for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in 25 countries, including Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Ghana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

About Clarke Energy

Clarke Energy—a Kohler Company—is a leader in the engineering design, installation and long-term maintenance of gas engine-based power plants. The company is an authorized distributor and service provider for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in 25 countries. Clarke Energy employs over 1,100 staff and has over 5,400 MW of Jenbacher generation equipment installed in its operational areas.

About GE’s Distributed Power

GE’s Distributed Power is a leading provider of engines, power equipment and services focused on power generation and gas compression at or near the point of use. Distributed Power offers a diverse product portfolio that includes highly efficient, fuel-flexible, industrial gas engines generating 100 kW to 10 MW of power for numerous industries globally. In addition, the business provides life cycle support for more than 35,000 gas engines worldwide to help you meet your business challenges and success metrics—anywhere and anytime. Backed by our service providers in more than 150 countries, GE‘s global service network connects with you locally for rapid response to your service needs. GE’s Distributed Power is headquartered in Jenbach, Austria.

About GE Power

GE Power is a world leader in power generation with deep domain expertise to help customers deliver electricity from a wide spectrum of fuel sources. We are transforming the electricity industry with the digital power plant, the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine, full balance of plant, upgrade and service solutions as well as our data-leveraging software. Our innovative technologies and digital offerings help make power more affordable, reliable, accessible and sustainable.

About GE

GE  is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the “GE Store,” through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry.