INTERVIEW - Rwanda Uses Lake's Methane For Power Generation
Date: 19-Nov-08
Country: RWANDA
Author: Jack Kimball
KIGALI - Rwanda has begun generating two megawatts of power utilising methane gas reservoirs in Lake Kivu, bordering Congo, that have an estimated 55 billion cubic metres of gas, an energy official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The central African nation is highly dependent on electricity from fossil fuels which account for 54 percent of production. The remainder is generated from hydroelectric dams.
Charles Nyirahuku, head of oil and gas at the Ministry of Infrastructure, said in an interview that Lake Kivu's methane could produce 350 MW for Rwanda over time and a similar amount for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which owns half the gas.
"Right now, out of the 4.5 megawatts capacity of the power plant, we are getting roughly two megawatts on the grid," he said in a telephone interview.
Only five percent of Rwanda's 10 million people are connected to electricity, but the government targets access for 34 percent of the population by 2020.
Nyirahuku said that it had cost 12 million euros to build the power plant. Lake Kivu's methane gas, discovered in 1937, is produced by degassing water from the bottom of the lake, official data said.
"We are targeting to increase from the current 62 MW in 2008 up to 150 MW at the end of 2012," Nyirahuku said.
Rwanda has two transmission networks -- 285 km of 110 kilovolt lines and another 64 km of 70 kilovolt lines.
Nyirahuku said that US company ContourGlobal planned to develop 100 MW of power over three to four years costing some $300 million, although the deal was not finalised.
A concession of Rwanda, the Rwandan Investment Group and Kenya-based Industrial Promotion Services, planned a separate project for another 100 MW funded mostly by multilateral finance, but it was still in the early stages, he said.
Kigali will also try to utilise the remaining methane for fertilisers, liquid fuel and gas for heating, cooking and industrial uses, Nyirahuku said.
Rwanda is also exploring it western regions for oil.
Nyirahuku said the Canadian-based Vangold was completing gravity and magnetic data research from aerial surveys, which should be available in March 2009, on possible reserves.
(Editing by Wangui Kanina)
