Biomass Energy & Geothermal Options

for Africa
(partly address non-electric options)
Climate Change and Energy Access
International Parliamentary Hearing for East African
Legislators
Samburu Game Lodge,
7th – 8th June 2008

By:
Stephen Karekezi,
Waeni Kithyoma,
Ken Muzee
www.afrepren.org
 Outline

• Why is biomass energy important for Africa?

• Why is geothermal important for our region?
• Categories of biomass:
- Traditional biomass
- Improved biomass
- Modern biomass

• Sample case studies of successful biomass energy initiatives

• Geothermal case example of Kenya
• Lessons learned and critical success factors from notable case
studies
• Key policy and legislative measures
Number of People Relying on Biomass
for Cooking and Heating (Millions)
Largely Rural and Urban Poor

2000 2030
China 706 645
India 585 632
Other Asia 420 456
Sub-Sahara Africa 583 996
Latin America 96 72
 Why is Biomass Energy Important?

 Linkage with 4 MDGs on poverty,

health, environment & gender
 Biomass & health/environment
 Biomass, women & children
 Improved & more efficient use beneficial
to poor
• Reduces expenditure on fuel
• Production, transformation & distribution generates jobs
and creates micro, small & medium scale enterprises

 Biomass & agriculture

• Agriculture: key income source for poor
• Solves problem of collection
• Biomass cogeneration could deliver significant benefits to
4-7 million people in Kenya (up to 20% of population)
 Three Categories
 Traditional Biomass Energy Technologies
(TBTs) TBTs
 Inefficient use of wood, charcoal, leaves, agricultural
residues, animal/human waste & urban waste

 Improved Biomass Energy Technologies (IBTs) IBTs

 Improved and efficient technologies for direct
combustion of biomass such as improved
cooking/heating stoves and improved biofuel kilns

 Modern Biomass Energy Technologies (MBTs)

 Conversion of biomass energy to advanced fuels/forms MBTs
namely liquid fuels, gas and electricity
Improved Biomass Option: Kenya Ceramic Jiko

 Reduces charcoal consumption by 30-50

 Accessible to the majority of the urban population (costs

US$ 2-3)

 KCJ – a result of research initiated in 70’s and actively

continued into 80’s

 Several million KCJs produced in Kenya; (>80% of

urban households in Nairobi and Mombasa use the
KCJ and 16% in rural homes)

 2.6 million stoves in use in Kenya alone

(cumulative production now over 15 million)
 One of the most successful stove projects in Africa –
used in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda,
Burundi, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Mali,
Senegal and Burkina Faso (Madagascar?)
 Improved Biomass Technologies
(IBTs)
 Institutional cookstoves
 Efficient kilns for charcoal and brick-making
 Efficient fish dryers (2nd largest foreign exchange
earner for Uganda)
 Efficient tobacco curing kilns (largest foreign
exchange earner for Malawi)
 Efficient tea dryers (largest share of export
earnings in Kenya)

 Significant dissemination of improved biomass energy technologies

(IBTs) in Africa countries but …
 Potential for wider dissemination of IBTs could be increased – almost
every country in Africa has an improved cookstove programme
 Successful dissemination of improved biofuel heating stoves in a few
industrialised countries - notable example being Austria (500,000) for
8million population
 Biogas – Status and Trends
 Some experience in the region with
mixed results
 Institutional digesters more
successful than domestic units

 Tanzania has registered good

progress - more than 4,000
domestic-size biogas plants with
encouraging success in institutional
market
 Pilot biogas projects implemented in
Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan
and Rwanda
 Signs of success in Rwanda’s biogas
program aimed at institutions
(prisons, rural educational
institutions) and now integrated in
agricultural program
Biogas – Netherlands Government
Initiative for Africa
 Netherlands government and other partners launched biogas
initiative covering 25 African countries

 Initial market surveys indicate market of 20 million

households

 Objectives:
 Install biogas plants in 2 million households in the next 10 years

 Offer business and investment opportunities

 Establish 800 private biogas companies and 200 biogas appliance

manufacturing workshops
 Generate at least 50,000 new jobs
 Modern Biomass (MBTs)
 Biomass by-products/waste-
based co-generation
 By-products/waste-based bio
fuels for transportation

Agriculture & agro-industries: key income source

for poor
• Solves problem of collection

• Biomass cogeneration could deliver significant benefits to

4 – 7 million people in Kenya (up to 20% of population)
 Modern biomass - key benefits

Job creation potential of renewables

Fuel Jobs per TWh

Bio-ethanol 3,770

Gas 130

Nuclear 80

Coal 700
Biogas 1,341

Source: Earthlife Africa/SECCP report 2003

Case study: Cogeneration in Mauritius
• Cogeneration attractive as
it offers alternative revenue
stream to Mauritius key
economic sector – sugar
industry
• Power sales revenue for
some sugar millers recently
exceeded that from sugar
• Diversified sources of
power thus providing
protection against unstable
& high oil price increases
 Cogeneration in
Mauritius

 Accounts for close to 40% of a

725MW national generation
capacity (of which 20-25% is
bagasse)
 Sugar industry accounted for
41.5% of total electricity
generated in 2005
 Began with smaller installations
(1.5MW - 5MW, recently installed
an 82MW plant)
 Successful Revenue Sharing
• Firm
– Corporate sector 51%
– Strategic Partner 27%
– SIT (Small planters/workers) 14%
– State Investment Corporation 8%

• Continuous
– Corporate sector 80%
– SIT (Sugar Investment Trust) 20%

• Equitable sharing of ownership of and revenue from

cogeneration ensures even smallest low-income farmer/land-
owners gets a portion of revenue (could contribute to conflicts
associated with agro-industrial development)
• In turn, leads to exceptionally strong & consistent policy
support
 Cogeneration in Mauritius
Sugar Sector Reform initiatives & Bagasse
Energy
Year Policy initiatives Emphasis on

Sugar Sector Action

1985 Bagasse energy policy evoked
Plan
-Tax free revenue from sales of bagasse and
electricity
Sugar Industry -Export duty rebate on bagasse savings for
1988
Efficiency Act firm power production
-Capital allowance on investment in bagasse
energy
-Diversify energy base
Bagasse Energy
-Reduce reliance on imported fuel
1991 Development
-Modernise sugar factories
Programme -Enhanced environmental benefits
 Cogeneration in Mauritius
Sugar Sector Reform initiatives & Bagasse
Energy
Year Policy initiatives Emphasis on
Blue Print on the
Centralisation of Cane Facilitate closure of small mills with concurrent
1997 Milling
increase in capacities and investment in
bagasse energy
Activities
-Enhance energy efficiency in milling
Sugar Sector Strategic -Decrease number and increase capacity of
2001
Plan mills
-Favour investment in cogeneration units
Roadmap for the
Mauritius Sugarcane -Reduction in the number of mills to 6 with a
2005
Industry for the 21st cogeneration plant annexed to each plant
Century
 Cogeneration in Mauritius
Energy Pricing
Based on informal consultation
Power mode Power Price – Rs (us Year Characteristics
Plant ¢)/kWh

Intermittent - 0.16 (0.6) 1982 Price frozen since 1982

Continuous Medine 0.55 (1.9) 1982 No change in price since 1982 –no changes
brought to the plant

Continuous 6 PPs 1.05 (3.7) 1997 44% of kWh price indexed to changes in oil
price and the other 56% is fixed
1.40 (4.9) 2000

Firm FUEL coal - 1.63 (5.7) 1985 Invested in new equipment

bag. - 1.56 (5.5) Indexed to coal price

Firm DRBC coal - 1.53 (5.4) 1998 Invested in second hand equipment
bag. - 1.46 (5.1) Indexed to coal price
Firm CTBV both - 1.72 (6.0) 2000 Indexed to coal price, cost of living in Mauritius,
Recent UScents 9 foreign exchange rate fluctuations
 South Africa Cogen Programme
• Call for Expression of Interest
– target 900MW
• Overwhelming response –
5000MW received
• Offered a standard PPA
• Feed-in tariff to be based on
avoided cost of thermal
power units
 Cogeneration in Africa
Attractive Option in the Region
% of current
Country Cogeneration potential installed
at 150kWh/tonne (MW) capacity

Kenya 159.2 14
Ethiopia 32.4 4
Tanzania 102.6 11
Sudan 16 21
Malawi 59.2 24
Swaziland 194.0 145
Uganda 48.3 15
 Biofuels – Key Drivers
• Oil importers - rising oil costs (peaked to over
$130 per barrel recently & moving to $200
per barrel)

• Increase in oil import bill for African countries

is higher than total recent debt relief for
Africa (IEA, 2005)

• High oil prices have negative impact on

transport fuel and electricity prices – Biomass
is a good alternative as source of biofuels
(from biomass by-products/waste) and power
generation

• Oil exporters - dwindling oil reserves

 Biofuels – Key drivers
Remaining Years of Oil Extraction
80

2004 oil extraction rate

70

60
Num ber of years

50

40

30

20

10

Côte d'Ivoire
Eq. G uinea
M auritania

Cam eroon

Sao Tom é
Nigeria

A lgeria

Angola

Egypt

Tunisia

Sudan
C ongo
G abon

G hana
D RC
Libya

Chad

Source: AfDB,2006 - Computed using African Development Bank data

 Challenges in Development of
Bio-fuels in Africa
 Competition between food and fuel
1. Biofuels could lead to higher food prices
2. Higher commodity prices are a concern for net food importing countries
particularly sub Sahara Africa
3. More fundamental problem – external food dependence on Africa
(American farmers feeding Africans)
4. Cost of rice has risen by 300% in Sierra Leone, 50% in Côte d'Ivoire,
Senegal and Cameroon. Cost of palm oil, sugar and flour also surged
5. Need for policymakers to be careful that biofuels are not developed at
expense of food production
6. Use of by-products and wastes of existing agro and forest industries, thus
not requiring new land

 Forests could be cleared for food crops displaced by biofuel plantations

• Use of by-products and wastes of existing agro and forest industries, thus
not requiring new land & new forest areas
 Challenges in Development of Bio-
fuels in Africa

• Will the poor benefit or be victims?

o Revenue sharing (experience of Mauritius)
o Land-ownership: preference given to out-growers
scheme & be careful about giving out land

• Other challenges
o Loss of bio-diversity and soil fertility
o Nutrient replacement
o Producing biofuels very energy intensive (fertilizer,
agric. machinery & transportation of biofuel feedstocks)
o Use more energy efficient biofeed stock such as sugar
cane and avoid energy-intensive biofeed stock such as
maize
 Case Study: Ethanol in Malawi
• Ethanol production started in 1982 at
Dwangwa Sugar Mill, run by Ethanol
Company of Malawi (Ethco)

• Second ethanol plant was built in 2004 at

Nchalo Sugar Mill run by Press Cane

• Both plants have combined capacity of 30

million litres per year

• Functional and useful ethanol blending

program in existence for over 25 years
 Geothermal
Development
in
Kenya
 Kenya Geothermal Power

 Kenya geothermal power plants account for about 10% of

country’s installed capacity
 Installed geothermal power 128MW
 A low-cost source of power that provides some protection
against high and fluctuating oil prices and drought-related
hydropower problems
 Geothermal Development in Kenya

Power Plan
By 2020, geothermal power expected to account for a quarter of total power
installed capacity up from current 10%
Kenya‘s Planned Power Generation Capacity
Expansion
 Geothermal Power
 Most of Kenya's Geothermal potential
areas (>20 fields) occur within Kenya’s
Rift Valley
 Kenya’s geothermal power potential is
estimated at over 3,000 MW
 Less than 10% of country’s geothermal
resources exploited – huge potential for
growth
 Large potential for thermal use of
geothermal resources – pilot plant in
flower farm has provided encouraging
results & could potentially benefit large
number of farm workers
 Expansion of geothermal heat use could
piggy back on the dynamic horticultural
sector
 Geothermal Energy in Africa
- Significant potential along Rift Valley (9,000MW - for steam/hot water only) for
grid-connected electricity generation from geothermal resources exists in
Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, Rwanda (170-300MW – current 60MW) &
other Rift Valley countries that extends to Malawi
- Huge geothermal heat potential in use in North Africa (Tunisia and Algeria) and
Kenya (flower farms)
 Other Embryonic Signs of Successful Programs
for Future Consideration

 Wind-power in Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Kenya (significant

potential in island states such as Mauritius and Comoros)
 Wind-pump in Kenya, South Africa and Namibia
 Small hydro in Uganda, Kenya and Madagascar
 Solar water heaters in Seychelles
 Efficient lamps/CFLs in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa
(sustainability is key)
 Industrial energy efficiency program in Kenya and building
efficiency program in Cote d’Ivoire
 Field missions/study tours by Parliamentarians
 4 Key Success Factors
1. Piggy-back – cogen/ethanol built
on sugar sector and potentially other
agro industries throughout Africa &
geothermal built on existing power
utility

2. Local champions and long

term commitment - should
demonstrate long term commitment and
should have significant control over the
design and implementation of initiative

3. Specialisation - preferences
should be given to specialised initiatives
with specific focus on a single option

4. Income generation and

revenue sharing
 5 Key Policy and Legislative
Measures
1. Targets: Setting targets for increased contribution of improved and modern bio-
energy in total energy consumption & other renewables
2. Standard power purchase agreements: For by-products/waste-based bio-
energy generated power & other renewables
3. Predetermined feed-in tariff/price: For by-products/waste-based biomass
electricity, biofuels & other renewables (Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania)
– often cogenerated power lower than cost of electricity from oil-fired
emergency/Independent Power Plants (IPPs)
4. Mandatory blending ratios: For bio-energy fuels for by-products/waste-based
(Malawi, Zimbabwe and Kenya in past – shows importance of law)

5. Dedicated institution: Charged with promoting renewables (rural electrification

agency?)
 Thank you

For more information:

www.afrepren.org