Uganda is relying on an alternative energy method to alleviate the power shortage affecting a large percentage of its population, and geothermal appears to be the top choice.
The Ministry of Energy has appropriated $45 million toward the exploration of sites that may have the potential to produce geothermal power. Uganda is in the advanced stages of exploring 23 sites around the country to establish the potential and feasibility for the alternative energy source before production can begin. The first seismic surveys will initially focus on sites in Katwe, Buranga, and Kibiro as studies have shown these areas to have greater probability for geothermal power.
At the second African Rift Geothermal Conference hosted by Uganda in November, the governments of Kenya, Eritrea, Uganda, Tanzania, Djibouti, and Ethiopia considered a proposal regarding the high capital cost involved in undertaking alternative energy projects. Uganda’s Minister of State for Energy Simon D’ujanga said, “This future is about diversification into other sources of power. This will also be a milestone towards power interconnection with neighboring countries to access surplus power.”
The minister said construction should start on at least three sites by the end of next year and subsequent production could start by 2012. The government hopes to get funding from the World Bank, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and Japan.
Since a United Nations-backed project testing new seismic and drilling technology in Kenya has proved that geothermal is a viable and cost effective source of power that has the potential to produce 7,000 MW in Africa, other countries across the continent are taking notice.
“It is part of Africa’s future,” Mr Achim Steiner, the executive director of UNEP told a news conference on the sidelines of a December UN conference on fighting global warming in Poland. “Geothermal is 100% indigenous, environmentally-friendly and a technology that has been under-utilized for too long,” he added.
The United Nations Environment Program hopes the pilot drilling technology in Kenya could roll forward the plan to cover Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania in 2009 by using the equipment and techniques piloted in Kenya and underwriting the risks of drilling.
D’ujanga said the government has targeted 1,000 MW by 2012 if it adds the expected 450 MW from geothermal projects, 180 MW at Bujagali, and more from mini hydro power projects. The geothermal project, he said, would be pursued concurrently with the initially planned power projects at Karuma and mini-hydro hydro power projects in western Uganda.
