Thursday, February 23, 2012

WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRIC POWER

Experiments in Wireless power transmission based on the work of Nikola Tesla, the greatest scientist you've probably never heard of. Is this real?


Video courtesy of www.youtube.com 
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UN commend Kenya plan to build solar transmission line

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NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- UN officials have hailed Kenya’s plan to expand investments in renewable energy projects and called for more debate on the East African country’s plans to venture into nuclear-powered energy initiatives.
Dr. Adnan Amin, the Director-General of the UN’s International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), hailed Kenya’s efforts to harvest wind and solar power and the investment of resources to generate electricity from geothermal sources.
Kenya is planning to build a wind-power transmission line, running from Lake Turkana, the venue of what would be Africa’s largest wind-power project, to deliver the energy to the coastal region.
"The opening of wind power transmission line will open a new corridor from the coast to northern Kenya," Amin told journalists on Tuesday during a news conference at the Global Environment Ministers Forum, Jan. 20-22.
Kenyan officials hope the Lake Turkana wind power project, expected to inject some 300 megawatts of electric power when complete, will start production of an initial 50 MW in 2013.
It is expected to earn 260 million U.S. dollars from trading carbon generated under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) carbon trade programme.
"Kenya is rich in renewable energy potential," said Achim Steiner, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director.
Kenya’s electric power generation, largely dominated by water- powered turbines, is gradually seeking to shift the more dependable geothermal and wind powered plants due to the effects of climate change, which has sparked off ecological damage.
The country’s seven forks scheme, a combination of dams drawing its waters from forests and deep dams has witnessed the dwindling of water supplies due to the cutting down of trees and poor rainfall, sparked by unpredictable weather patterns.
East Africa’s worst drought in decades left most hydropower dams drier and with less water to support peak generation and the Arab Springs sent oil prices skyrocketing.
The World Bank and local Kenyan financial institutions are emerging as key financiers of the "green energy" drive in Kenya.
The focus has been on the expansion of geothermal power and the construction of wind-powered plants.
Victor Williams, the Head of Investment and Corporate Banking at the Standard Bank of South Africa, whose bank is also funding the renewable energy projects, said the bank was keen on financing renewable energy projects across the Eastern Africa region.
"Financing of renewable energy projects is key to our markets, especially in East Africa, where we fund geothermal, solar and biomas projects," Williams said.
He said the bank was funding the Kinangop Wind Power project in central Kenya, which aims to generate 60 MW as well as the Turkana wind power project.
It is estimated the wind power project in Turkana, northern Kenya, alone required 800 million dollars.
Williams said the Bank has also signed various agreements with Kenya’s state-funded power firm, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) for carbon trading.
The UN officials said energy was central to economic development.
"We are seeing development of technology on renewable energy in Africa," the IRENA chief said, "The action agenda must address barriers to access to energy."
The UN officials were particularly worried that while Africa possessed the highest potential of growth in renewable energy, most people in the continent were largely unable to access affordable energy.
Amin urged countries to tap into funds available from private companies across the world to improve private energy investments in their countries.
"We only use five per cent of the hydropower potential in Africa.
"Some 95 percent is less untapped.
"There are new techniques of sustainability," Amin said.
He said new mining technologies has enabled the Kenyan energy ministry to invest in geothermal extraction for electricity generation.
"We see an overreliance on supply of fossil fuels.
"Renewable energy can change the way rural areas are integrated into the national economy," Amin, a Kenyan, stated.
lectricity from wind energy will dominate production generation projects that are ongoing up to 2013, according to an updated generation data from the Ministry of Energy.
The data shows additional generation projects started last year will generate 1,657 MW by 2013.
Out of this amount, 705MW is expected to come from wind energy.
Planned and ongoing wind projects include that by KenGen in that will eventually produce 15MW, a planned project by Aeolus Wind to produce 100MW, Lake Turkana Wind to produce 300MW and Gitson Energy to produce 300MW
An additional 210MW is expected to come from geothermal indicating the government’s intention promote investment in renewable energy.
The planned projects, most of which will be done by private sector will benefit from the 400KV free transmission line planned by the government.

Report courtesy of Coast Week 
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Ethiopia completes construction of 296 km Sudan power transmission line

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) has completed construction of a power transmission line that connects between Ethiopian power grid and Sudan.

Scope of work involved construction of a 296km long, 230kV line between the Ethiopian towns of Bahir-Dar and Metema and connects with a transmission line in Gedaref, a border town of Sudan, which connects it to power grid of Sudan.

The project received a $41m funding from the World Bank.

The transmission line will initially transmit 100MW of electricity to Sudan.

In addition, the project will reduce the green house gas emissions by utilizing Ethiopia's surplus hydro-power.
Furthermore, Ethiopia is planning to export 400MW of hydropower-generated electricity to Kenya by 2016, reports sudantribune.com.

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Egypt to boost Gaza power supply to ease crisis


By REUTERS02/21/2012 16:29

Cairo says amount of electricity to Gaza to be increased by 5 megawatts, in move to halt shortage that embarrassed Hamas.

Gaza power plantBy Reuters
Egypt will let more fuel into Gaza and increase the amount of electricity it supplies to the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said on Tuesday, a move to ease a power crisis that has embarrassed the ruling Hamas movement.
The Egyptian government said the amount of electricity supplied to Gaza would be increased to 22 megawatts from an existing 17 megawatts already supplied for free. In addition, emergency diesel would also be supplied.
"The increase comes in the framework of a quick attempt to relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people," Hassan Younes, the Egyptian minister responsible for electricity and power, said in a statement.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh confirmed that Gaza had agreed with Egypt to end the persistent energy crisis, according to Hamas affiliate Al-Resalah.
Gaza depends heavily on fuel smuggled in from Egypt to keep its lone power station on line. But supplies were unexpectedly cut last week, forcing Hamas, which runs the coastal territory largely cut off by Israel, to impose lengthy blackouts.
Many locals have accused Hamas of mismanaging the situation, relying too heavily on smuggled fuel, which it taxes heavily, rather than seeking alternative sources of energy via legal channels on which it could not impose levies.
The crisis enabled the Palestinian Authority (PA), which holds sway in the West Bank and is often at loggerheads with Islamist Hamas, to intervene with Egypt and broker a deal.
Gaza's energy supply is bad at the best of times, with a rickety infrastructure system badly degraded during fighting over the past five years between Israel and Hamas, which is committed to destroying the Jewish state.
Omar Kittana, head of the PA Energy Authority, told Reuters Egypt was ready to provide the Gaza Strip with emergency diesel in the coming days and would also increase the amount of electricity it supplied to the territory.
In future, regular diesel supplies would be trucked into Gaza via the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom, he said.
"Egypt wants to legalize the matter and end the smuggling of fuel because it comes at the expense of the Egyptian people," he told Reuters, saying that the smuggled diesel was subsidized by Cairo and was meant only for use within Egypt.
Kittana said the plan was to increase Egyptian electricity flows to 62 megawatts within two to four months.
Senior Hamas leaders are in Cairo and Taher Al-Nono, the Hamas Gaza spokesman, said he was optimistic that a deal would be struck following further discussions.
There has been widespread anger across Gaza over the recent blackouts, with electricity available just six hours a day during one of the coldest weeks of the year. There has also been a severe shortage of diesel for cars.
Hamas suspended imports of fuel for the power plant from Israel last year and instead relied on smuggled stock, and was totally unprepared for sudden halt to supplies from Egypt.
No explanation was given for the disruption, but some newspaper commentators speculated that Egypt was looking to pressure Hamas to support a drive to mend bridges with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and back a Palestinian unity government. Abbas is due to meet Hamas leaders in Cairo on Thursday.
Until fuel starts to flow through Kerem Shalom, which borders Israel, Gaza and Egypt, diesel will continue to arrive through the network of smuggling tunnels that connect southern Gaza to Egypt, a Palestinian source told Reuters.
Officials in Gaza said their old plant produces 80 megawatts at full capacity, while Israel feeds Gaza with 120 megawatts. Kittana said there was a move to resolve longstanding problems by building greater transmission capabilities at the border with Egypt and boost capacity there to 300 megawatts.
"The project may take at least 18 months to be ready and by its completion it will resolve the Gaza power problem once for for all," he said, adding it would cost $50 million to complete.
Courtesy of Reuters & Jerusalem Post
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Zambia: Power Pool Body Urged to Scale Up Output

15 FEBRUARY 2012
THE Government has urged Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) members to look at the power deficit in a positive manner and strategically turn it into an opportunity to come up with initiatives to scale up output.
Lands, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma said members should eek initiatives and exploit initiatives that would lead to recapitalisation. Mr Yaluma was speaking in Livingstone at Zambezi Sun Hotel yesterday at the 38th SAPP Annual General Meeting.
SAPP is a cooperation of national electricity companies in Southern Africa under the auspecies of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The members of SAPP have created common power grid between their countries and a common market for electricity in the region. The minister said the demand for electricity in the southern African region had increased at an average rate of three per cent per year due to increased economic activities.
SAPP members should therefore, invest more in power projects to mitigate the power supply deficit.
"I note that some success has been achieved, such as the commissioning of 1,230 Mega Watt (MW) capacity within the region during the year 2011. However, I would like to challenge members that I believe that more can be done," Mr Yaluma said.
He said one of the biggest challenges in the region was the inertia that had gripped members in implementing power projects.
"This inertia to implement power projects has made it difficult to move into first gear. Some of the projects that we discuss at our meetings have been on the lists for years. There is no movement for years," he said.
He also challenged SAPP to find feasible avenues for matching the drive for increased trade among members with equal investment in necessary infrastructure for interconnection.
"The interconnection projects such as the Zimbabwe-Zambia-Botswana-Namibia transmission, the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya inter-connector and the proposed Democratic Republic of Congo-Zambia inter-connector among others should be pursued with a united sense of urgency and not left to individual power utilities," Mr Yaluma said.
And Zesco Limited managing director Cyprian Chitundu said his company was investing in demand side management initiatives through institutional capacity strengthening and stakeholder engagement to maximise the available power.
Mr Chitundu said Zesco had taken advantage of the 6000 MW hydro -power potential in Zambia to develop various hydro -power stations.
The power projects include the 360 MW Kariba North Bank extension, 120 MW Itezhi-tezhi hydro power generation and 750 MW Kafue Gorge lower hydroelectric power station well as several key transmission projects.
Copperbelt Energy Corporation executive chairperson Hanson Sindowe said his company looked forward to participating in SAPP sponsored projects such as ZIZABONA which would go a long way in resolving transmission constraints.
"We are well placed to participate in developing generation projects with SAPP countries, either as private players or as members of Public-Private Partnerships with SAPP national utilities," Mr Sindowe said.
Lunsenfwa Hydro Power Company managing director Katai Kachasa said 'darkness' was still a paramount feature in southern Africa as the majority of the population still had no accessto electricity.
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Zimbabwe: 'Energy Sector Investors Put Off By Indigenisation Policy'

9 FEBRUARY 2012

CONCERNS over Zimbabwe's indigenisation programme are stalling the country's efforts to lure independent power producers (IPPs), who are desperately needed to lift Zimbabwe's electrical power output, which is critical to the revival of the country's industry and economy.
Energy and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma disclosed this at the Zimbabwe Independent Dialogue in Harare yesterday held under the theme: "Is Zimbabwe's industry revival being stalled by the energy crisis?" The minister was responding to criticism that there seemed to be no movement at all on the roll-out of IPPs to augment Zesa's strained capacity. A proposal by Essar of India that it would have been on the grid by September was cited as an example.
Although the Essar deal was reportedly now on course, Mangoma said concerns over indigenisation and the general perceived political risk of Zimbabwe stood in the way of several other potential power-generation projects. Zesa last year published a list of potential power projects throughout the country which included thermal, hydro and gas power stations. But the uptake by potential investors, particularly foreign investors had been slow.
"The people prepared to do IPPs are not there... They are finding the economic situation and political situation not acceptable to them. They are saying 'We want to put in money only to lose 51%. Why should I bother when I can go somewhere else?'" Mangoma said.
However, in an effort to encourage private power generation, the Energy minister said he had directed that anyone who wishes to add to the national grid be expeditiously granted the licence to do so. Previously, potential investors in electricity generation had been frustrated by bureaucratic bungling in the issuing of licences. The one stop-shop policy adopted by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority, encompassed the issuance of power generation licences.
Mangoma lamented that despite the bureaucracy, investment in the power sector also faced formidable challenges in the form of corrupt tendencies by Zesa staff. Describing the corrupt tendencies as shocking, he gave an example of some employees who went to the extent of removing certain pages on tender documents so that the bidders they didn't want to win would be disqualified.
Turning to the long-stalled Batoka hydroelectrical power project, a joint venture with Zambia, Mangoma said he expected this to finally take off now that the dispute between the two countries over its implementation had been resolved. Zimbabwe had undertaken to pay Zambia US$70 million owing from the time of the Federation when the two countries jointly embarked on the Kariba hydroelectric project.
"We will now identify an independent power producer to do a BOT (Build Own and Transfer) on Batoka. We have not yet agreed on the (full) concession," Mangoma, who was on his way to Zambia yesterday to firm up on the agreement, disclosed. Meanwhile, government was also exploring other power sources such as thermal and gas.
"We are also looking at thermal and gas. But we need to do a little more exploration on the gas side," said Mangoma. "We can start generating electricity from gas while we are conducting the exploration, depending on the quantities of the gas." A delegate from the Industrial Development Corporation expressed concern that if the gas option, particularly the Lupane gas project was delayed, Zimbabwe stood to lose out to Botswana, which was already exploiting the same resource.
Responding to questions on Zesa's managerial challenges, including its failure to efficiently collect money owed to it by users, the minister pointed out that prepaid metres were now almost certainly on the cards in a bid to deal with an alarmingly high rate of default among Zesa customers. The winning bidder to supply the metres was required to first install them before he could be paid.
Acknowledging the challenges that power shortages presented, Industry minister Welshman Ncube, who was also a guest of honour at the function, said Zimbabwe needed to come up with credible macro economic and investment policies to attract investment, adding that the nation could not move forward without a reliable and affordable power source.
He said with sound policies, Zimbabwe's power situation would change. However, in implementing existing policies, the unity government was facing challenges in differences of opinion among parties. This was stalling economic progress on many fronts.
He cited the Essar deal, where despite his ministry having given the nod to the Indian company to take over Zisco and its mining rights, the Mines ministry, run by Zanu PF, had delayed implementation of the agreement. Essar were still awaiting the transfer of mineral rights from the old Buchwa Iron Mining Company to the new entity -- New Zimbabwe Minerals.
"Sometimes you feel like ripping your hair off because of exasperation," he said. Ncube also expressed his frustration over the national debt issue, where his MDC party and MDC-T believed Zimbabwe should apply for the International Monetary Fund's Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status, which qualifies a country for debt cancellation, but Zanu PF was opposed to this. As such, the US$7 billion external debt still hung over industrial and economic recovery potential. HIPC provides debt relief and low-interest loans to cancel or reduce external debt repayments to sustainable levels.
Zanu PF argues that Zimbabwe has vast resources and cannot accede to such a "humiliating" status.
Said Ncube: "Some say we are a very rich country. Some say we have so much resources. Others blame the sanctions. At the end of the day we are unable to deal with this (the external debt issue). I doubt we will deal with this issue in the current lifetime of the GNU."
Responding to worries by delegates over surtax on goods that are not locally manufactured, Ncube said he was against such unjustified protectionist attitude, adding Finance minister Tendai Biti would soon revoke sur-tax.
Sur-tax is an additional tax on something already taxed, such as a higher rate of tax on incomes above a certain level.
Ncube added he would launch the finalised Industrial Development Policy (IDP) and trade policy in the next few weeks. 
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AU: AFRICA PLANS FREE TRADE AREA


Credit: au.intBy Jerome Mwanda 
IDN-InDepth NewsReport
NAIROBI (IDN) - Aware that lack of political will rather than funding is slowing down implementation of vital regional infrastructure projects and standing in the way of intra-African trade, the region's 54 nations have decided to establish a continental free trade area by 2017, speed up infrastructure development and put related policies and laws in place to boost the integration process.
"The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) should be operationalized by the indicative date of 2017, and enhanced intra-African trade and deepened market integration can contribute significantly to sustainable economic growth, employment generation, poverty reduction, inflow of foreign direct investment, industrial development and better integration of the continent into the global economy," according to the Declaration on the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa.
The document was endorsed at the 18th African Union (AU) summit January 23-31 in the Ethiopian capital with adoption of a series of agreements concerning region's economic, political and security issues.
The AU has made a three-step plan to prepare for the ultimate CFTA target: The first step is to finalize the tripartite agreement among the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by 2014.
The second is to urge other trade blocs to follow the experience of the tripartite agreement and reach a parallel agreement between 2012 and 2014. The third is to consolidate the tripartite and other regional free trade areas into the CFTA initiative between 2015 and 2016.
The African grouping said it recognizes "the vital role of infrastructure and related services in the political and social-economic development, and physical integration of the continent," especially given the population growth and economic demand.
The member states are asked to increase public financing of infrastructure, implement major power projects such as hydroelectricity, oil refinery and gas pipelines, accelerate the construction of missing links and modernization of railways, and increase the capacity of ports.
African countries should also develop new and renewable energy resources to provide clean, reliable and affordable energy as well as nuclear energy for peaceful use, the declaration said. The summit also recommended developing regional and continental broadband networks and submarine cables to promote Africa's digital economy. At present, Africans have a low-level connectivity of infrastructure networks and poor access to energy and information services, the declaration said.
To achieve such targets, the summit appealed to international institutions such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank to support the implementation of those projects and plans. The declaration said the infrastructure needs will reach about USD 60 billion in the next 10 years.
Intra-African Bridges
However, it is not little what the African countries can do by themselves. African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka gave the example of the Gambia Bridge, to link The Gambia and Senegal, as one AfDB project that had been delayed for many years due to political reasons. Following AfDB's intervention, however, construction of the bridge is expected to begin soon.
He also mentioned the Kazungula Bridge in Southern Africa as an example of another vital project that has been delayed by slow inter-country cooperation. Funding for the bridge, which will link Zambia and Botswana across the Zambezi River, has now finally been secured and construction is to begin on it soon.
The Kazungula Bridge, which will replace a ferry service, will have a major impact on trade in Southern Africa, as it enhances the flow of goods and people in the region. Transit times for goods traded between the landlocked countries of Zambia and Botswana could be cut to just six hours on the bridge’s completion.  It now takes from 30 hours to as long as a month at peak times.
Kaberuka said good inter-country cooperation could lead to the timely execution of infrastructure projects that enhance increased intra-African trade and boost the continent’s economic growth. He gave the example of the recently completed Ethiopia-Djibouti Power Interconnection Project, which now allows Ethiopia to export electricity to Djibouti. The African Development Bank contributed USD150 million to this project. It will provide a further USD 300 million to the Ethiopia-Kenya Power Interconnection Project, which will boost the supply of power to Kenya and the East African Power Pool by some 2,000 megawatts.
Kaberuka cautioned that the economic downturn that has ravaged the developed countries could weaken demand for African exports and dampen earnings. He explained that this could, in turn, undermine the ability of commercial banks in Africa to provide trade finance. He said that as a safeguard, AfDB was looking at ways it could help cover this shortfall in Africa’s trade finance. The infrastructure financing gap, he noted, will also require innovative financing, including public private partnerships and climate funds.
African heads of state at the Addis Ababa summit endorsed the launch of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), a multi-billion dollar initiative to end in 2040. PIDA is based on a joint study by the African Union, the Economic Commission for Africa, the AfDB, and the Planning and Coordinating Agency of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.  The AfDB is the executing arm of this initiative.
On the margins of the summit, the AfDB and the World Customs Organization (WCO) signed a memorandum of understanding, under which the two organisations will work together to enhance the capacity of customs administrations in Africa. This improved capacity of Africa’s customs authorities is designed to help boost intra-African trade.
"Under this partnership, AfDB's regional infrastructure financing and WCO's technical customs expertise will complement each other and improve the efficiency of our efforts to facilitate trade," said Kaberuka. "Coordinated efforts by both institutions to improve border management will help many companies in Africa conduct cross-border trade. This will in turn further deepen regional integration in the region," he added. [IDN-InDepthNews – February 19, 2012]
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