Page 7 - AfrElec Week 46

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec

East Africa’s geothermal potential

risks being left untapped

EAST AFRICA EAST Africa has so far failed to take advantage and indigenous source of renewable energy to
of its geothermal potential, with only 900 MW of help meet the electricity requirements and direct
generating capacity up and running. use needs of several countries in the region.
Governments across the region need to put The EARS consist of two branches – an east-
in place supportive policies and investment cli- ern branch and western branch.
mates if the region is to meet the aims of both the The eastern branch extends from the main
UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Ethiopian Rift (Djibouti, Ethiopia and Eritrea)
and the Paris Agreement emissions goals. through Kenya into northern Tanzania. In con-
The International Renewable Energy Agency trast, the western branch extends from northern
said in a recent report, called Geothermal Energy Uganda through Rwanda, DRC, Burundi, south-
Development in Eastern Africa, that only Ethio- ern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique.
pia and Kenya had geothermal up and running. Developers in countries of the EARS have
Yet geothermal resources have been con- been predominantly focused on electricity gen-
firmed via drilling of deep exploration wells in eration from high-temperature fields. However,
Djibouti and shallow wells in the Democratic the high-temperature resources occur only in
Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia. isolated places with central volcanos, and within
As of May 2020, however, active drilling of only a few countries of the eastern branch of
geothermal wells was taking place only in Dji- EARS.
bouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, with other regional On the other hand, low to medium tem-
countries only at the surface exploration phase perature resources (<150 degrees Celsius) are
of development. more common, occurring mainly in the western
“The new report highlights that limited branch and within large sections of the rift floor
awareness about the region’s geothermal between the central volcanoes.
resource potential and the associated benefits, Thanks to the development of binary cycle
especially about direct use applications, such as technology, in which geothermal fluid is used
in agriculture and food processing, may be con- via heat exchangers to heat a process fluid in a
tributing to slow development.” closed loop, medium temperature fields can be
Indeed, geothermal presently accounts for used for electricity generation or for combined
only 900 MW of the region’s total installed capac- heat and power.
ity of 20 GW. The direct use of these geothermal sources
could support industrialisation and transform
EARS the region’s countries from a socio-economic
The East African Rift System (EARS) is one of development perspective.
the largest rifts in the world. Characterised by There is no lack of projects to build new geo-
a spreading crust, the tectonically active region thermal projects across the region, with Ethiopia
spans 6,400 kilometres in length and up to 64 earmarking 690 MW by 2025, Tanzania 200 MW
kilometres in width and runs through several by 2025 and Djibouti 400 MW by 2037.
countries in Eastern Africa. However, without the right policies and
The geological attributes of the EARS make it know-how, geothermal’s potential runs the risk
so rich in geothermal energy resources that – if of failing to be realised.™
harnessed – it could provide a reliable, affordable

Week 46 19•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7