When could a new power plant at once be an economic boon, an environmentalist’s dream, and a literal life-saver? When it’s built on one of Africa’s “killer lakes.”
The L.A. Times today reports on the latest installment in Rwanda’s decades-long battle with methane-filled Lake Kivu. The huge lake, which borders the Republic of Congo, has massive concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide at depth, and the gas concentrations are increasing every year. The United Nations and other experts warn that sooner or later the lake will explode, as others have before in the region, killing thousands.
Rwanda’s idea is to turn the potentially deadly methane in the lake into a power source for the electricity-starved nation. That would get some of the explosive gas out of the lake, and could potentially double the amount of electricity available in a country that barely has any, and relies on diesel generators and burning wood for what it has.
Hoping to avert a catastrophe on the shores of a lake where 2 million people live and to solve its energy woes at the same time, the Rwandan government is embarking on a risky project to extract the methane and use it to generate electricity. Methane-power generation plants exist elsewhere, but the effort here is the first attempt to extract the gas from underwater and burn it to fuel an electricity plant. “It’s the first of its kind in the world,” said Albert Butare, Rwanda’s minister of state for infrastructure. “In the beginning, it was a myth. But now the technology is promising.”
Of course, Rwanda’s been toying with small-scale projects to burn the methane for decades, with little success (though it did briefly power a brewery). It’s been tinkering with larger-scale power plants for years, too. The latest attempt includes a $200 million outlay by investment group Contour Global to help build a 20-megawatt power plant.
Experts who have spent years studying Africa’s three “killer lakes,” concluded in 2006 that “from the point of view of risks, the environment, and economics, the only viable action is to produce the methane gas in Lake Kivu and use it for power production.” That would lessen the explosive threat, help local fishermen, protect forests currently razed for fuel, and bring electricity to a place where only 5% of the population is connected to the grid.
The World Bank figures a methane-fueled power plant could make economic sense, as well—no small matter for a cash-poor government that often struggles to buy diesel fuel for its generators. The World Bank estimated the pilot projects could produce electricity for about 6 or 7 cents per kilowatt hour. That would be competitive even in the U.S.—and a quarter the price of electricity produced by diesel generators.
Very often, developing countries have to choose between the environment and electricity—with one predictable loser. Will Lake Kivu, at least, be an exception?