Globally, civilization and industrialization, as well, have skyrocketed. The need for energy and power, the ability to do work, has been rising rapidly in the last 50 years and much more rapidly in the last two decades.
The reliance on coal and oil for fuel was much of a relief to the 20th-century civilization and industrialization despite its environmental health concerns, but in the 21st-century civilization with massive power-consuming mechanical and electronic devices, industrialization has needed way too much energy and power.
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Renewable Energy Resources |
Energy is key, the natural environment provides it: the Sun, wind, water and the geosphere. However, coal, oil and petroleum products have posed great dangers to
the natural environment. These non-renewable energy sources are not only
expensive to extract but also dangerous to human and environmental health.
On the other hand, non-renewable energy emissions such as carbon II oxide,
Sulphur dioxide have threatened the depletion of the ozone layer thus global
warming. Greenhouse emission has also increased due to rapid industrialization
that has been witnessed in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa in the last
jubilee.
GLOBAL ENERGY HEADACHE
Climate Change In The World
Threats of climate change in the world have never been taken lightly. The global campaign against global warming has been intensified and focuses on the need to reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions. World leaders have teamed up to combat this imminent threat to human and natural environment existence.
International community is teaming up through treaties like the Kyoto protocol to commits state parties to limit greenhouse gas emission and the Paris climate agreement whose main global framework is to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to below 2oC. All these to help prevent future catastrophes of increment in global temperatures.
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Industrial emissions endangering the ozone layer |
An increase in global temperature has threatened the existence
of Indonesian islands and Japan, a rise in the sea levels beyond normal points,
flooding on the coast and wildfires in the Amazon region and in Australia. This
is the absolute global headache amidst the promising industrialization growth.
Fuel Substitution: A Possible solution to the Energy problem
Therefore, the most effective way to combat this change is for the world to adopt renewable energy; that does not threaten human and environmental health.
Adoption of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind,
biomass, hydro and geothermal energies is also a critical way to achieving the sustainable development goals(SDGs) that many states are heading towards.
Renewable energy is relatively cheap, safe and very much
abundant over the globe. The only possible factors that hinder its full
exploitation stands to be technological and financial issues.
Despite the fact that most developed states have successfully
utilized non-renewable energy sources such as coal, oil and petroleum products,
environmental health concerns have demanded otherwise and that applies to every
other state that would want to boast of sustainable development.
Africa’s Role and Potential
Whilst Africa at present contributes less than 5% of global carbon emissions, it bears the brunt of the impact of climate change. Africa will participate in global efforts for climate change mitigation that support and broaden the policy space for sustainable development on the continent. Africa shall continue to speak with one voice and unity of purpose in advancing its position and interests on climate change.
Sun Of God In Africa
The sun is the source of all energy. In fact, the sun is
God. In the ancient Kemet (AFRICA), they paid homage to a deity called RA, he
was the SUN god. In plants, the sun is a catalyst for photosynthesis. In humans, when the skin is exposed to the sun it provides energy for Vitamin D
synthesis to occur.
Potential energy from the sun (solar power) can also be transformed into
electrical power through solar photovoltaic modules which absorb solar
irradiance to trigger the flow of electrons and formation of holes in any Silicon’s
single or multi-crystalline semiconductor PV module to generate electrical
power that can be used to charge batteries and therefore store electrical power.
The African continent lies within the tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn, with maximum hours of sunlight, with no severe winter seasons. Also,
potential reserves of Africa’s solar energy are estimated to be 60,000,000 Terawatts-hours
(TWh/year) accounting for over 40% of the global total, thus making Africa the most
sun-rich globally. Africa should earnest
this free gift from the Gods to its full potential.
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A Typical Solar Farm |
Furthermore, solar thermal energy can be used directly for heating and drying with the help of parabolic dish collectors and heliostats to heat water and vacuum heating. Additionally, solar power harnessing thrives well in areas of low humidity such as the Arid and Semi-arid land (ASALs) in North Eastern Kenya etc.
Africa's Wind Energy
The sun heats the earth at different elevations, resulting in differences in geological pressure. This causes air to flow from high to low-pressure regions causing wind. Wind power can be extracted with the application of wind turbines, to turn turbines to generate electrical power.
Africa receives a long duration of sunlight, which means it receives relatively high-speed winds that can be earnest into electricity to satisfy the entire continent’s electricity demand, 250 times over.
Wind energy harnessing has been successful in Kenya in Ngong wind power plant, Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant and Northern, Eastern and Western Cape in South Africa, etc.
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Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant-Kenya |
Wind energy can also be used directly for a room or household ventilation and water pumping purposes.
Adoption of wind energy help reduce
dependence on other non-renewable and also achieve fuel stacking objectives. This is
another sector that the African States are yet to venture into and fully tap into
its potential.
Hydroelectric Power (HEP) In African Countries
Water flowing naturally over the earth's surface as rivers possess kinetic energy that can be transformed into other forms of energy.
The construction of dams across rivers helps create the needed height for water to
fall with a force that drives turbines to generate electricity.
Hydropower generation requires rivers with a large volume of water, natural formations such as rapids, waterfalls and hard basement rocks to support dam constructions.
Hydropower is the primary source of electricity in Africa as the continent is blessed with several permanent large-volume water
rivers. Africa already boasts between 600 to 800 large dams/reservoirs.
Rivers like the Nile which defies all odds to flow through a desert have got a large volume of water that no matter how many dams we construct along the river, there is still much volume to be utilized upstream for irrigation purposes in the desert areas of Egypt.
Hydropower generation has shown prowess in the several large-volume rivers in Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia and still many more rivers yet to be exploited.
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Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant-Kenya |
Geothermal Power: Another Energy Goldmine For Africa
This type of energy is released from the interior of the earth. Earth processes such as volcanic eruption, and tectonic and continental drifts help circulate the heat retained in the interior of the earth and even expose it to the surface.
Magma upwelling in the lithosphere heat nearby rocks and
underground aquifers. Hot water can be released through geysers, steam vents,
hot springs or underground hydrothermal vents. This heat can be captured and
used directly for heating or indirectly as the steam can be used to drive
turbines to generate electricity in a geothermal power plant.
However, the geothermal heat is easily harnessed where earth processes are relatively still active. Africa is once again lucky to have these active regions.
One example, the Great Rift Valley trails from Djibouti through Ethiopia
stretching its western arm to Uganda and eastern arm to Kenya all the way to Mozambique.
The floors and escarpments of the Rift Valley are rich potential ground for geothermal power since it’s known to have over 30 active volcanoes and countless hot springs.
Furthermore, Africa still has other active volcanoes such as Nyiragongo in DRC signifying that geological processes are still active in the continent.
Geothermal power harnessing in Africa has shown success and still shows great success in Kenya (the largest geothermal energy producer in Africa) and Tanzania identifying over 50 regions that could produce geothermal power.
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Unit II of Olkaria V Geothermal Power Plant-Kenya |
Fully harnessed, geothermal power in Africa can reduce the demand for electricity in Africa by half thus skyrocketing industrialization on the continent-wide front.
Parting Shot
Africa should never hesitate to increase its industrial activities amidst fear of global warming due to industrial emissions of greenhouse gasses.
Regardless of how costly flue gas desulphurization, carbon filtration, carbon capture and storage (CCS), bio filtration methods of treating industrial effluent might be, Africa increasing its natural and artificial forest cover and adoption of green cities can act as natural carbon sinks to aid in eliminating excess carbon emitted into the atmosphere reducing carbon footprint to greater percentages.
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Green Star SA Projects-South Africa |
Fuel substitution i.e. adoption of renewable energy when tapped to its full potential, can reduce the cost of energy, reduce the dependence on oil and petroleum products and increase rapidly the electricity connection in rural Africa that might still depend on nonrenewable sources such as kerosene, charcoal and firewood for fuel.
Africa possesses the world’s largest renewable energy potential that awaits to be fully exploited.
More by this author >> WHY AFRICANS SHOULD TAKE KEEN INTEREST IN MATTERS ORGANIZATION AND UNITY
Green city …now that's perfect.Let's plant trees
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