Download 25-Year Energy Plan-Congo

MCEN5228 Sustainable Energy 25‐YearEnergyPlan‐Congo
Introduction:
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the 11th largest country in the world and lies in the heart of Africa. Over the past 50 years this country has been facing many wars, corrupt leadership, and diseases. The most recent war happened from 1998 to 2003 and is referred to as the “African World War” since it involved 9 African countries. This war was the deadliest and most brutal war since WWII with over 5.4 million killings. Most deaths were due to the lack of hygiene and medicine resulting in diseases. Even after the war today, tens of thousands of people die every month due to the wide spread diseases and lack of food. Figure 1: Victim of War The DRC is one of the poorest but yet richest countries in the world, holding about 30% of the world’s diamond reserves and about 70% of the world’s Coltan reserves. This metallic ore is refined and then used in a wide range of electrical components. The DRC also holds huge amounts of oil and untouched natural gas reserves. Yet the government is unable to provide medicine and care to its citizen. MCEN5228 Sustainable Energy Fortunately the Congo River runs through the DRC where hydroelectric plants generate about 96% of the country’s energy needs. The other 4% are covered by oil. The Congo River is an incredible energy source that should be utilized even more than it is now. Looking 25 years into the future, the population will have increased by over 30 million people. This means that the country has to provide more energy and food for everyone. This will be a huge challenge since only 1.4% of the country’s land can be used for agriculture. Futureenergyconsumption:
Over the next 25 years we can expect an increase in energy demand of 11,000,000 toe per year. Since the main source of the DRC’s energy generation is due to hydroelectric power plants harvesting energy from the Congo River, this would be a fantastic source of energy not only for the DRC but the Congo River has potential to generate enough energy for nearly the entire African continent. The plan for the next 25 years should be to build one more hydroelectric power plant. This plant should be at least the size of the Three Georges Damn in China. A hydroelectric power plant of equivalent size would cost about 22 billion dollars. Obviously a plant like this doesn’t quite fit into the countries budged. Private contractors and energy companies have already started discussing the possibility of building such a power plant with the financial help of other African countries. Figure 2: Three Georges Damn in China If such a power plant was to be built, it would be a huge economic boost for the DCR. The DRC would be able to export energy to almost every African country, increasing their GPD, and therefore the country would be able to afford better care for its citizen. MCEN5228 Sustainable Energy Table 1: Energy consumption by source 2010 vs. 2035 Energy Consumption by Source Hydroelectric Oil Current 2010 96% 4% Future 2035 100% 0% Alternativeenergysources:
Regarding alternative energy sources, the DRC has very limited options. The only alternative energy source that could be used to help with the countries energy needs would be solar energy. As you can see the map below shows the annual solar resources for Africa. North and south Africa have excellent solar resources and central Africa has slightly less solar power available. Sadly DRC falls right in the area where there is less solar energy available compared to the rest of the continent. The most intense solar energy in DRC can be found in the far south of the country. This map for the available solar energy in Africa was provided by NREL after a study conducted in 2005. Figure 3: Solar radiation intensity map Wind energy is not an option for the DRC. Wind data and research has shown that wind speeds are very low and therefore investing in large scale wind farms would not be economically feasible. Offshore wind farms would also be not advisable. The DRC only has a 25 mile stretch that borders the ocean and 9 of those miles are taken up by the enormous river mouth of the Congo River. This area is subject to heavy shipping traffic and therefore an offshore wind farm would be in the way of boat traffic. MCEN5228 Sustainable Energy Bioenergy from energy crop is also not an option since only 1.4% of the countries land can be used for agriculture and this land needs to be used for food crop. The DRC doesn’t have enough fertile land to grow enough food crops to feed its people. Most of the counties food is imported or grown in very small scales locally. Discussion:
The DRC is facing a challenging next 25 years. In this time frame the most important thing to accomplish is to raise the living conditions of the people living in the DRC. The country needs to focus on providing medical support to the millions of people still suffering from the consequence of years of civil wars, diseases, and lack of food. This would include implementing more cellphone towers to provide a way of communication to the remote locations of the country, build more medical facilities, and food distribution centers. Figure 4: Poverty struck village Currently the DRC is actually more sustainable than most other countries in the world due to the enormous amount of energy extracted from the Congo River. By building more hydroelectric power plants the DRC could dramatically increase their energy export and create a stronger economy with more jobs, and increase the overall standard of living. As a backup energy source, the DRC has a large natural gas deposit that hasn’t been touched. This reservoir could be tapped and create a new sector in the country’s economy. The DRC is full of energy and could be one of the world’s biggest energy exporters. Meeting energy demands is by far the smallest problem the DRC is facing over the next 25 years. In my opinion this country must deal with a much more fundamental problem which is helping its people to survive. There will always be money in the DRC due to its great natural resources, but that means nothing if the money coming from those resources isn’t spent in a way to benefit all the people. MCEN5228 Sustainable Energy References:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the‐world‐factbook/geos/cg.html http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo The CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the‐worldfactbook/geos/cg.html http://www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com/ http://www.nrel.gov/gis/mapsearch/ http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/renewable‐energy‐resources/world/africa/windafrica/ index.shtml