Blessed
with the largest fresh water lake in Africa (Lake Victoria), Uganda has for
many years relied on hydro-electric power to meet her energy needs. With a
current total energy supply of 849.5 MW, the presently installed capacity of
695.13 MW from hydro-energy sources alone accounts for close to 82% of Uganda’s
energy supply.
However
for a long time now, Lake Victoria the main reservoir for the country’s hydro
dominated electric power system has suffered a challenge of decreasing water
levels caused by climate change and global warming. As a result, majority of
the power plants are unable to generate power at their installed capacities.
Considering
the present shortages in power supply, it is crucial for the government to
develop a strategy to diversify the energy sources by developing the
alternative available energy sources within the country. The current energy
supply alone cannot meet the rising demand. It is also noteworthy that due to
the old age and inadequacy of the existing network, power cuts are frequent as
maintenance works proceed and in some cases grid reinforcement is done to meet
the growing energy demands of the load centers.
A
viable solution to this – Renewable Energy. Wind, solar, and biomass are three
emerging renewable sources of energy in the world today. Renewable energy is
generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally
replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and
geothermal heat. As
noted in The Renewable Energy Policy for
Uganda, Uganda has considerable renewable energy resources for energy
production and the provision of energy services, yet they remain unexploited,
largely due to the perceived technical and financial risks. These resources
include: biomass, geothermal, large scale hydro, mini/micro/pico hydro, wind
and solar energy. However, with the exception of biomass, whose contribution is
very significant, the remaining renewable sources (including large hydro energy
sources), contribute about 5% of the country’s total energy consumption. This
limits the scope and productivity of economic activities that can be undertaken
in any part of the country. Thus it is imperative that the use of these
abundant resources should be enhanced.
Studies
completed in 2004 gave the potential of the different sources as indicated in
the table below.
Source: Alternative Energy Sources
Assessment Report, 2004, National Biomass Assessment Study 2003
