Pele Green Energy’s Jolene on finding your place in the energy transition

Pele Green Energy did not begin as a power company at all. Its founders wanted to change the lives of young South Africans, and energy became the means through which they could do it. That origin story sits at the heart of what Jolene Shaw, General Manager at Knowledge Pele, told ENN at the Africa Energy Forum, and it still shapes the advice she offers young entrepreneurs today.

Pele is now one of South Africa’s leading independent power producers, though Shaw was keen to stress how far it has come from those beginnings. The transformation the founders were chasing, structural change for young people, found its conduit in energy, and the commercial success the business enjoys today has grown up alongside the social impact it always meant to create. Reaching that point has taken almost sixteen years, which is exactly why her first lesson for young entrepreneurs is patience, holding to the long-term goal rather than chasing only the quick wins, and building strong networks and the right skills early on.

When the conversation turned to where the opportunities lie as Africa industrialises, Shaw was quick to point out that generation is far from the only way in. A whole ecosystem of industries and roles has grown up around the sector, so the smart move is to find the place in the value chain that genuinely fits you, whether that lies in climate technology, digital advances or the environmental work these projects demand. As a business, she noted, Pele hires more accountants than it does engineers. Just as important to her is that communities industrialise alongside the utility-scale assets rather than being left to one side of them.

On what it will take to turn today’s young entrepreneurs into the industrial leaders Africa needs over the coming decade, Shaw was direct about the backdrop, with unemployment sitting at around 46 per cent and entrepreneurship one of the few genuine routes to creating jobs. Mentors and partnerships have their part to play, but her sharper point was aimed at the industry rather than the entrepreneurs, because new entrants to the market are so often underfunded, and a sustainable business cannot be built that way. Funding those businesses properly, she argued, is what ties back to a growing economy, since it is the new entrants, not only the established employers, who will create the next wave of jobs.