Africa Backing Hydropower

The quest for cleaner energy generation is one that is going to be a main focus for the next several decades. Without a doubt, humanity has finally realized that our insane overdependence on oil and other fossil fuels is, if nothing else, simply not healthy. It will eventually run out, and we’ve decided to, finally, look for alternate sources.

But turn our eyes away from the mainstream and western face of this planet, and we see that Africa is already on the renewable energy bandwagon.

According to a report at Bloomberg.com, Uganda has just announced that they will start building the 200-megawatt Karuma hydropower plant sometime in the first quarter of 2009. President Yoweri Museveni said that this is a chance to tackle the national electricity shortage.

Museveni told parliament on Thursday that the government had already allocated $200 million for the project, of a predicted $500 million total cost. Ugand is in talks with Norway’s Norpak Power Ltd. over developing the plant. But even without the involvement of Norpak, Uganda is intent on going through with this project. “We are working with the Norwegians, but in case they delay we shall continue alone,” Museveni said.

But Karuma is not the only hydropower plant in Uganda, and was in fact delayed in favor of the construction of the 250-megawatt Bujagali power project. Currently, Uganda has a demand of 380-megawatts, but provides a total of 245-megawatts via hydro and thermal power.

credit: Jonathan Assink at Flickr under a Creative Commons license