The state of energy in sub-Saharan Africa and the urgency for small hydropower development

Abstract

There exist several renewable energy resources within the African continent. Quite a lot of attempts have been made to study these small hydroelectric sites and ways to harness them. Nevertheless, the majority of these potential sites remain undeveloped. Several countries within the African region such as Togo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, and many others continue to experience a cyclical national power crisis, which is mostly attributable to insufficient power output to meet the continuously rising demand. An increase in electricity demand is unavoidable as the nation works to grow its economy, and more electricity generation will be required to power both established and new sectors. Several villages within the sub-Saharan region have lived with no electrical energy access for several decades now. The majority of these nation's current power generation portfolio is made up of a combination of hydro and thermal power plants, and for a while now, any temporary increase in generation has been achieved by the addition of new thermal power plants, even though these fossil fuels are occasionally in short supply. The country enters a constant cycle of power rationing with serious negative effects on industry and homes due to seasonal reductions in water inflows into hydropower facilities and occasionally difficulty obtaining crude oil or natural gas. Potential problems of this energy crisis are the high demand for electricity caused by certain factors its supply challenges and the lack of structural supply of electricity to consumers.it is therefore important for the entire globe particularly the developed countries to alleviate Africa from the high energy demand and poverty as a result of the energy crisis.

Keywords

• Hydropower
• Electricity generation
• Small hydropower
• Potentials
• Installed capacity