Energy Access is a Social Justice Issue
ACCRA, Ghana – Energy rationing is popularly nicknamed “dum-sor,” or “on-off” in Ghana, an expression that people use to talk about the country’s frequent power outages. This is a challenge faced by countries across the region – sub-Saharan Africa loses 2.1 percent of gross domestic product from blackouts alone – and across the developing world.
While the lack of a consistent electricity supply is one of Ghana’s largest economic challenges, the truth is that the country has made progress in increasing access to energy. Today, about 75 percent of the country is connected to the national electricity grid. This is significantly higher than the regional average: only one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity.
I recently traveled to Ghana on End Poverty Day to commemorate the country’s success in reducing poverty and sharing prosperity over the last two decades – poverty has been cut by more than half, from 53 percent of the population in 1991 to 21 percent in 2012. As Ghana has developed, with more workers moving from agriculture into services and industry, energy reliability has never been more important for the growth and stability of the country’s economy.
No matter how much is invested into skills training or small- and medium-sized enterprises, businesses cannot thrive without access to reliable and competitively priced modern energy.
Blue Skies – a company located 45 minutes east of Accra – delivers many tons of fresh fruit and juices to European supermarkets each year and employs about 3,000 Ghanaians – most of whom are under the age of 30.
When the power goes out – a near-daily occurrence – Blue Skies relies on expensive diesel generators to keep production going. The company has already spent the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars on back-up fuel in the first nine months of 2015. This kind of reliability challenge is felt by manufacturing enterprises across the region. Firms in sub-Saharan Africa lose an estimated 4.9 percent of annual sales due to electricity outages.
Blue Skies has absorbed the additional costs due to the lack of a steady power supply, but for many smaller businesses the situation is even worse.
To help increase clean and affordable energy in Ghana, the World Bank is providing $700 million in guarantees for its Sankofa gas project. This will fuel up to 40 percent of Ghana’s currently installed generation capacity and replace polluting fuels with cleaner, more affordable natural gas that is produced domestically. Ghana will be able to reduce oil imports by 12 million barrels per year and carbon emissions by around 8 million tons over five years. Our private sector arm – the International Finance Corporation – has also helped increase Ghana’s electricity generation capacity with financing for an efficient new gas-fired power plant. TICO 2, which started operations this month, will account for about 15 percent of the country’s total electricity output.
We’re investing in transformational energy projects across the region – and the world – because reliable and affordable power supplies aid business development greatly; every $1 invested in the power supply generates more than $15 in incremental GDP. Hydropower is the world’s largest source of renewable energy, and finding responsible ways to use Africa’s vast hydroelectric potential can bring electricity to tens of millions of people who now live in the dark. Sub-Saharan Africa has 300 gigawatts of undeveloped hydro potential, which is enough to nearly quadruple its total generating capacity of 80 GW. In contrast, Western Europe uses about 85 percent of its available hydropower potential.
When people don’t have access to electricity, their world of possibilities narrow. When businesses don’t have access to electricity, they cannot grow. If we are going to end extreme poverty in the next 15 years, we must greatly expand access to energy for the poorest people and the poorest nations. Universal access to energy – especially clean, affordable energy – will be the only way for us to truly give an equal opportunity for nations to grow and people to reach their full potential in the years ahead.
Associate Vice President
8 年IT’S TIME TO TREAT MSW (MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE) THEREBY TO RESOURCE NOT ONLY ENERGY BUT TO CONVERT EACH COMPOSITION INTO A REVENUE MODEL WITH O% LANDFILL APPROACH: ABOUT NATURE POWER BALANCE (NPB) TECHNOLOGY Worldwide, there is a growing need for sustainable and coherent solutions to solid waste management problems. MSW seems to be more complex in developing and transitional countries, where the increase volume and type of wastes, as a result of economic growth, urbanization and industrialization, is becoming a burgeoning problem for national and local governments, making tougher to ensure an effective and sustainable management of waste Major problems related to MSW Management are: ? Composition of MSW varies with pocket to pocket ? Segregation-At-Source has not become a reality and is adding cost to operations ? MSW sites have foul odors & cause health risk to site workers & surrounding localities & citizens ? Leachate or run-off from MSW is a major threat to ground water quality and in addition contribute to the production of a “biogas” that is 55% Methane (CH4) and adds approximately 3% of the GHG that is contraindicated in climate changes. ? Collection of leachate & its treatment prior to release requires is an unproven science. ? Available Treatment technologies are quite capital & energy intensive. NPB Technology For Municipal Solid Waste Management – An approach to Zero Landfill with sustainable solution: Controlled decomposition of MSW leads to resource recovery for sustainable waste management. We gave proprietary inoculum from GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe by WHO) microbe for ‘Controlled Decomposition’ for efficient resource recovery. Our inoculum is known as RENERZYME a.k.a Re-Energy Enzyme. Being a Mixed Microbial Culture, RENERZYME has an edge over other cultures or enzymes. Renerzyme: Microbial Cultures of GRAS microbe contains organic acids, metabolites, organic salts etc. It can dominate local micro flora & fauna in no time. At the same time, it works to activate local dormant beneficial microbial species in the eco-system. NPB GRAS microbe & local beneficial microbe work in tandem to create synergies to take charge of the eco-system & generate temperature as high as 80° cent. This unique action is known as ‘Bio-Drying’. During multiple cycles of biodegradation, a widely diverse population of micro organisms catabolises substrates through complex biochemical reactions to satisfy metabolic and growth needs, gradually leading to mineralisation of organic substances. Salient & distinct features of RENERZYME application for MSW are: ? No need of Segregation-at-source OR prior to Treatment ? It can handle input moisture contents from 30-70% ? It controls foul odour & fly within few hours of applications ? Maintains acidic pH within 24 hours of application to thwart generation of ammonia ? Rapid biological action increases mass temperature over 70 degree centigrade within 4-6 days ? Mass temperature remains over 65 degree centigrade for 4-6 days to kill weed seed in compost, removes moisture and does not allow leachate generation ? Rapid Biological action consumes food waste & water to make it free-flow ? Free-flow mass requires less energy for sorting & processing ? Post-RENERZYME treatment, mass is fed to sorting line to recover the resources like a) Compost, b) RDF, c) Recyclables (Plastics, Paper, Metal etc) and d) Inert (stone, dirt) etc. ? Yields could be as high as 50% from wet MSW. ? Recovered RDF is further utilized in producing ENERGY by means of Gasifier, Boilers, Heating equipment to Power. ? Compost produced carry specification near to FCO standards ? Recyclables are very clean & can be easily sold to its vendors ? Stone can be further crushed & utilized to form concrete blocks – A need of construction industry in urban world There are different types of mechanical Drying technology available, but all are highly advanced & requires high capital cost. Majority of Mechanical drying technology requires excessive external energy, huge space, pollution control equipment, water treatment facility - for drying of MSW. All this equipment adds an additional process, that has got its own problems & limitations, which makes the drying of MSW as major obstacle in further application & processing integration. In case of MSW management, NPA technology can bring in following changes in eco-friendly manner: ? Odor control in few hours from application ? Non-biodegradable (Plastics, Metal, Glass, Clothes, Leather etc) are separated during sieving operation, when its hygienic ? pH of mass comes down from 8.0-9.0 to 5.5-6.0 in 24 hours time, which kills harmful microbe & prevents loss of Nitrogen in the form of ammonia ? Composting time is less than 4 weeks, hence, no loss of carbon in the form of CO, CO2 or CH4 ? As the temperature goes more than 80° C, No leachate generation, hence no additional cost for leachate management & treatment. ? Our process can efficiently produce Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) in form of Briquettes / Pellets, which is further used for steam & power generation. RDF has calorific value of 2500-3300 kcal/kg, so, RDF is an economically viable solid fuel. ? Sale of RDF on regular basis will generate cash flow for the project & at the same time will reduce the requirement of working capital. RDF can be used in gasifiers or steam boilers to generate POWER making complete project more economically viable. Revenue Models If we consider MSW as a resource, we should adopt a ‘0% Landfill Approach’, i.e. we should have ways & means to convert all the components of MSW into saleable products, in an eco-friendly manner. The following are the revenue models from our treatment & processing technology. All the revenue models may not be feasible at all the locations. ? Compost: 5-10% of the input ? RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel): 20-40% of the input ? Metals: 0.5-2.0% of the input ? Mixed Plastics: 5.0-15.0% of the input ? Inert: 5.0-15.0% of the input Waste-to-Energy: From recovered resource, RDF and Mixed Plastics would be useful to produce power. The following routes can be adopted for power generation. ? Steam Route (40 kgs pressure): Needs 80-120 MT of MSW for 1 MW ? Gasification route: Needs 50-55 MT of MSW for 1 MW ? Combination of Steam & Gasification : Needs 50-55 MT of MSW for 1 MW NPB Technology is the generation of “smart” energy from MSW resources.