GEOTHERMAL ENERGY, THE WAY FORWARD FOR AFRICA
One of the most significant hindrances to the development of Africa is lack of enough energy (power). A very reliable, cheap, sustainable, eco friendly, and affordable is a small scale, micro grid, districts based geothermal energy plants. Geothermal energy is best generated around hot tectonic and earthquake resistant regions.
One of the most significant hindrances to the development of Africa is lack of enough energy to power homes, industries, businesses, schools, research facilities etc. Most of the energy being generated in Africa currently are from fossil fuel and in an integrated grid system making energy generation businesses in Africa not bankable.
A very sustainable energy solution must be renewable as the world is moving away from fossil fuel (this is necessary to mitigate the effect of climate change. Several renewable options have been tried in several part of the continent viz: solar, wind etc but geothermal energy, which also a renewable energy source hasn't been tried in Africa or to say not commonly used in Africa. Geothermal energy is best generated along the tectonic plate and a very earthquake resistant region; all these suits the geographical description of Africa. Also geothermal plants have very high factor capacity ( up to 60%) compared to solar 28-33% which is the highest amongst all renewable energy sources and only lower nuclear plant, but unlike nuclear plants, they are cheaper to build and safer. Geothermal plants are cheap, eco friendly, affordable and reliable. They can also be built in micro grid and small scale making them very effective for many African countries that have little cash to invest in energy.. This system can be used to build industrial district stretched over a fee km2 across the country and energy to be utilized by the industries in each district will be generated by only by power plants in that district. These will reduce energy loss through transmission and distribution and increases profitability of energy investments and businesses. Currently in Nigeria, up to 80% of power generation is lost through transmission and distribution which makes it very difficult for most power generation to make profits and also discourages investors form building new power plants. This prescribed solution will provide energy in numerous small scales and can aggregate to produce abundance energy to push forth the industrialization of Africa.
Generation of energy necessary to power industries and businesses in Africa and boost human capital development. It will also make energy investment in Africa very bankable. The most important impact will be that energy will be very cheap because of minimal loss through transmission and distribution.
The design will be a kind of reverse engineering of geothermal plants built in the developed part if the world.
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