World Bank Allowing Europe to Tap Congo Dam Power Sparks Outrage
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Related subjects: Africa, DR Congo conflict, Economy, Environment & Ecology, Europe, European Union, Fair Trade, Global, J.E. Robertson, L'accés: Society of Access, Renewable Resources, Sustainable Development, Water: a Global Crisis Comments Off
Outrage ensued when it was announced that Europe could extract electricity from the Grand Inga dam project, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, deep in sub-Saharan Africa. At present, less than 30% of the African population has access to electricity, and in some countries, the figure is below 10%. The World Bank has found that the diversion of electricity to wealthier customers in Europe may be necessary to fund the project.
The Grand Inga dam project will be the world’s largest hydroelectric project, with more than twice the generating capacity of China’s controversial Three Gorges dam. The Grand Inga dam would generate 40,000 MW, roughly the entire generation capacity of South Africa, and would cost $80 billion to build.
The initial feasibility study for the project, which would require unprecedented levels of financing for such a project in the region, included the plan to sell electricity to Europe. The plan is said, by proponents, to mirror projects that are designed primarily to use African resources to provide power to the European market, like Desertec, an investment of 400 billion € in solar power from the Sahara, or the pipeline plans that would carry natural gas from Nigeria through Niger and Algeria, across the Mediterranean, to the European Union.
The Grand Inga project also involves electric transmission lines that would run to South Africa and to Egypt. When completed, the Grand Inga dam could provide power to upwards of 500 million homes across the African continent, but project coordinators and World Bank regulators say without subscriptions for power purchase from richer markets, the financing may be hard to maintain.
The first phase of the project would refurbish a disused and crumbling dam, re-establish electricity transmission and begin exports to South Africa, to boost DR Congo’s hydro-electric revenue stream. The second phase would direct 4,300 MW to the Katanga region, where mining is a vital industry for local and national economic sustainability.
The Grand Inga dam would be the third and most complex phase of the project. Multiple phases of feasibility study are likely and plans are not expected to be finalized within the next five years. After plans are in place, the Grand Inga construction, including dam, reservoir and hydroelectric power station, is expected to take another ten years. Who the ultimate market to buy Grand Inga electricity will be has yet to be established, but the possibility of diverting some of the much-needed African electricity to Europe is, by all accounts, controversial, however instrumental it may be to funding.
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