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18 December 2013

Sustainable Green Energy In Africa

By Cornelia White


Power is an important resource in any economy and as such, countries experiencing insufficient supply of energy would tend to lag behind in terms of development. The African continent has been shadowed by great difficulty that has been around for years; fundamental resource which is power has been so limited as to leave billions of people in the dark. Because of the urgent need of sustainable green energy in Africa, a lot of effort must be put in.

Even though there are countries with just enough power to supply their populations, a number of countries that are blocked out of sources of power such as rivers, wind, or coal feel the deepest pinch. Many countries have come out to invest in harvesting of natural resources such as wind to ensure they produce power for both domestic and industrial use.

Insufficient power supply in most African countries is definitely a plague that must be put to a stop, and this can only be achieved by proper planning and collaboration with the right specialists to ensure that permanent solutions are arrived at. A lot of room for innovative activities is available that would ensure that there is longevity in power supply in affected countries.

Industries need a lot of power to operate; this makes it difficult for countries that do not have access to sufficient power to provide their citizens with high quality products and services. There are a lot of sources of power and all of these need enough capital to implement. Some countries lack adequate capital to utilize their raw materials and even explore their potential power sources.

Supplementing renewable sources ensures that should they run out either permanently or temporarily, there are other ways by which power can still be generated. Solar energy has been used to supplement these sources for a long time making sure that countries with stable sunny weather can utilize this resource. Use of solar panels makes it possible to generate energy for domestic use.

Not all countries have access to fast wind and sunlight, but those experiencing wind speeds exceeding 12 meters per second have a potential of generating power from the wind resource. Mostly, these kinds of high speed winds are experienced along the coastal regions of Africa. African Rift has also been discovered to hold a potential of generating geothermal power.

Various rivers in Africa that have been used to generate hydroelectric power include Blue Nile, Nile, and Congo among several others. Coastal regions of Africa experience fast winds of up to 12 m/s. This can be exploited to generate power to supplement the main sources to ensure that non-renewable sources are not depleted quickly.

African Rift regions have the potential of producing geothermal power as revealed by research carried out in such areas. Coal has been used for ages to generate power by most African countries but this is slowly becoming obsolete because of high costs involved. Sustainable green energy in Africa is the only way to go to ensure there is sufficient and reliable power supply to the industrial and domestic sectors.




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