grand dam

It's renewable energy, but is it sustainable? Hydro power produces zero carbon emissions, but what will the Grand Inga, planned to be the world's largest hydroelectric dam, do to the land and communities of the Congo River? This is just one of a number of big hydroelectric schemes proposed or under construction in Africa aimed at addressing a serious power shortage on the continent, but electricity generated on this scale will not easily reach those who presently rely on paraffin and biomass fuels for household energy.

Distributed energy systems could do much more for developing local communities, increasing awareness of the need to conserve energy, and increasing the range of renewable power sources. The energy challenge needs a team effort, where the team is not just the World Bank, the World Energy Council and Southern African Power Pool utilities like Eskom. There are other criticisms of the Inga project.

At 39,000 MW, Grand Inga will be nearly as large as South Africa's existing generating capacity. Power from Inga will be distributed to countries throughout the continent, including South Africa.

Comments

[Bill Hulet]

Sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but studies in Canada have shown that new hydro-electric projects create greenhouse gas emissions too. It seems that when you flood a valley the vegetation rots under the water, which creates methane, which out-gases from the lake. Since methane is a greenhouse gas that is many times more active than CO2, my understanding is that this is a very significant issue.

There are no "free lunches".

[Rory]

Good point. In fact, New Scientist reported on methane from dams seven years ago, and again in 2005. And despite current investigations into a way to harness methane from dams (Brazilian scientists claim that generating electricity from this methane could reduce the need for additional hydroelectric dams or other power stations), I still think electricity generation should go local rather than go big.