INTERVIEW-World Bank: Africa power crisis must top aid agenda
12 Oct 2006 00:41:55 GMT Source: Reuters
By Gilbert Le Gras WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Sub-Saharan Africa must double its investments in power generation if it is to ease chronic blackouts and extend electricity to half its population from a quarter now, a World Bank official said on Wednesday. "Africa is in a power crisis. From Uganda to Tanzania to Ethiopia shortages are increasing. Special attention on African power generation should top the agenda," World Bank energy director Jamal Saghir said. The World Bank's annual meeting in Singapore last month approved a plan for the region's power needs from supplying clean cooking fuel and expanding electricity distribution to adding generation capacity. Saghir, who meets with European donors next week, said his message is simple: to double the proportion of people in Sub-Saharan Africa who can access energy, donors will need to double investments to $4 billion a year from $2 billion now. Total power-generating capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, is about 30 gigawatts or equal to Poland's power output, he said. Adding another 25 gigawatts by 2030 could expand the number of people with access to energy to 47 percent from 23 percent now. Currently 550 million people in the region have no power. Africa is losing 1 to 4 percent of gross domestic product growth potential, because it only adds 1 gigawatt of generating capacity each year compared with China which is adding that much each week. Some non-governmental organizations say the World Bank must stop funding fossil fuels and limit itself to small hydro dams but Saghir said that would delay African poverty reduction. "You cannot tackle the issue of access in Africa only with small projects, even if some of them are dirty like diesel (powered generation)," he said. "Adding that much new capacity (25 gigawatts) will only add 3 percent more carbon dioxide a year. The airline industry generates about 4 percent." Ethiopia, where Italy's Salini signed a $1.75 billion deal in July to build a hydro dam, is one of the best candidates in the world for more hydro projects, he said. Every one percent increase in the rate of electrification yields a one percent drop in poverty, Saghir said, adding that villages with light bulbs also registered higher intellectual quotients because children were able to read at night. "In some areas, renewables are the only way. PVs (solar photo-voltaic power generators) and wind are the only solution in some places," he said. For instance, Kenya has big geothermal potential and Cape Verde could harness wind energy to meet its power needs.
