Energy's self-sufficiency through Animal Breeding and Biogas Production

We warmly welcome you, if this is your first visit to Africabiz Online - The ultimate newsletter on trading and investing in 49 sub-Saharan African countries. If you are a regular and faithful reader, welcome back.

- HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS YEAR 2007

Africabiz Online editorial team wishes you and your loved ones a very festive Christmas 2005-period; a happy and prosperous business year 2007.

- SELF SUFFICIENCY IN ENERGY IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES? FEASIBLE

Most of African cities around the continent are experiencing power cut (energy crisis.) Only about 50 up to 80 percent of national demand is satisfied by power generating stations, which cannot provide uninterrupted service. Electricity power is not delivered 24 hours around the clock but during only one to eight hours per day; and cities' boroughs are serviced one-by-one in a round- turn. Even countries that have mineral resources (coal and oil) or installed hydropower dams are in the same boat. That is for the cities.

In rural areas, the situation is dire. Indeed, some villages (one out of one thousand) have diesel powered electricity generators; but sometimes, these generators remain idle for months because there is no money to purchase oil-fuel. Therefore, the global coverage for electricity' supply at national level average 8 percent (an optimistic estimate! [1, 2, 3]) for the whole continent. That's the sad fact.

That state of affairs is really a paradox when the solution is simple and affordable for African countries that do not have deep pocket.

It is a paradox and a sad fact as we all know that without energy' supply, there would be no industrialization, and consequently, no harmonious developing that creates wealth for all. Let us here quote an expert, Mr. Itai Madamombe:

"On the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, business plans are only as final as the next electricity outage permits. In July (2004), food tins at the Prime Pak canning factory were positioned on the assembly line, ready to be sealed before export. Without warning, the machines came to a screeching halt, leaving entrepreneur Cyril Francis standing helplessly in the dark. Thirty per cent of the consignment spoiled."

In Strategy For African Countries, one component of the proposed Integrated Scheme (that has the inherent capacity to generating annual double-digit growth-rates over a minimum of 10 years and accelerate the developing), is the production of vegetable oils and biogas (renewable energy).

Vegetable oil could be used as it is as pure vegetable-oil fuel to power motors and engines and generate electricity. The technology already exists and is reliable. The same for biogas production that uses vegetable waste, animal dung and human waste. Stoves, cookers, electric bulbs, industrial machine and equipment designed to use biogas (and electricity produced by biogas) are now industrially produced - and are efficient and reliable.

In Business Opportunities' section, a brief about "how much electricity an animal breeding operation could generate through the production of biogas" is exposed.

The result is an outstanding daily 1.2 megawatts per hour (MWh) of electricity generated through the breeding and fattening of a flock of 3,206 pigs per year.

That is a tremendous achievement that shows it is possible for African countries to sustain self-sufficiency in energy through animal breeding - not to speak of the production of vegetable oils to be used directly as vegetable-oil fuel. Click here to read about: Renewable Energy Is the Answer to Energy Crisis In African Countries.

Many thanks for dropping by and see you here on January 15, 2007.

Dr. B.M. Quenum
Editor of AFRICABIZ