AT THE edge of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, in a space roughly the size of a football field, stands hope for Africa’s industrial future: the Ubungo power plant. Gleaming pipes emerge from the ground; five modern generators hum quietly. This was where, in 2013, Barack Obama announced his Power Africa plan to electrify the continent.
The trouble with plants such as Ubungo is that there are not enough of them. Opposite the power plant, young men sell charcoal to burn for cooking and heat. At night in the city centre the streetlights are turned off. South of the Sahara there are only seven countries—Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa—in which more than 50% of people have access to electricity. In a typical year the whole region generates less electrical power than Canada, and half of that supply is in South Africa.
Generating power in Africa ought to be a good business. Africans tend to pay extraordinary prices for electricity. Businesses rely on dirty and expensive diesel generators. Tanzanian mines are powered by generators burning diesel that has been trucked across...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1MVPC14
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