EAC Regional Strategy for Scaling Up Access to Modern Energy Services & Biofuels in East Africa

Dr N. C. WeggoroDirector, Productive & social SectorsEast African Community Secretariat

April 11, 2023

East African Community Secretariat

The First High-Level Biofuels Seminar in Africa

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OUTLINE EAC Regional Strategy for Scaling Up Access to Modern

Energy Services INTRODUCTION TARGETS OF THE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

Biofuels in East Africa CURRENT STATUS COUNTRY SCENARIOS SUCCESS STORIES

Conclusion

Recommendations

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INTRODUCTION

The Strategy seeks to engage EAC Partner States in an ambitious initiative to scale up access to modern energy services to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Objective is to enable at least half of the population to access modern energy services by 2015 i.e.

9.6 million households (approx 48 million people) 23,000 extra localities

Objective of the Strategy is in line with commitments of NEPAD FEMA

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TARGETS OF THE STRATEGY

The Strategy aims at developing MDG-based energy access investments in the framework of High Impact Low Cost Scalable (HILCS) options for four target areas

Access to modern cooking practices for 50% of traditional biomass users

Access to reliable modern energy services for all urban and peri-urban poor

Access to electricity for all schools, clinics, hospitals and community centres

Access to mechanical power within the community for all productive services

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STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK

Implementation of the Strategy will be at regional and national levels through clear results driven processes.

Four service lines have been identified as key to the success of the Strategy

Policy harmonization

Capacity building of public and private sectors

Formulation of support formulas (e.g. soft loans, grants etc)

Strategic coordination and project management

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STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

A Project Coordination Unit (PCU) will coordinate regional and national activities

PCU will be composed of technical staff operating within existing structure of EAC

Focal Points at energy ministries will coordinate national level activities supported by multi-sectoral working groups

An ongoing short consultancy with national representation from each EAC country is identifying actual programmes and activities to be undertaken

operational modalities and functions of PCU

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BIOFUELS IN EAST AFRICACurrent Status East Africa’s pre-dominant energy source is biomass.

Kenya: Biomass energy, up to 70% of Kenya’s final energy demand and provides for more than 90 per cent of rural household energy needs, about one third in the form of charcoal and the rest from firewood. It is estimated that 80% of urban households’ wood-fuel demand is met by charcoal.

Uganda: biomass contributes over 90% of total energy consumption and is largely used in traditional non-commercial form. Every year, 20 million cubic metres of wood are consumed for cooking

Tanzania: Biomass is the dominant fuel used in Tanzania, accounting for over 90% of the country’s total energy consumption

Burundi: Wood and peat account for 94% of energy consumption. Peat offers an alternative to increasingly scarce firewood and charcoal as a domestic energy source. The government is promoting peat production.

Rwanda: Wood and other biomass account for 93% of energy consumption in Rwanda. At the current rate of wood consumption

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Kenya Alcohol fuels Alcohol fuels were introduced in Kenya, as a fuel blend for gasoline in

1983. However, due to management and pricing problems its use was discontinued in 1993. This fuel blend had a volume composition of 65% super petrol, 10% alcohol, 25% ordinary or regular petrol.

Bio-diesel Bio diesel is currently not in use in Kenya. The potential for its production, however, exists from locally grown

trees and crops. There is need for research and development on the potential for the

exploitation of this option. Kenya can also borrow from experiences from countries that have

had success on the implementation of this technology.

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Kenya Biogas There are over 1.100 biogas plants in operation in Kenya.

Most biogas systems found in Kenya are between 4-16 m3 and 3 m3 of gas, which is considered sufficient to meet the cooking and lighting needs of a family of 5 persons.

the mean daily consumption of biogas works out to be 0.6 m3, which translates to an annual per capita consumption of 219 m3 of biogas.

Despite its potential benefits, the penetration rate of biogas technology is still very low. The main problems are poor design, high initial capital costs, high maintenance costs and weak technical support. poor management, Lack of awareness and acceptability. Lack of adequate supplies of water, which is normally added in a ratio of between

one and three parts water to one part feedstock

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UgandaBiomass Uganda has immense forest and agricultural resources that can be converted into energy. As an agricultural country, Uganda generates a lot of agricultural residues which can be converted

into energy. The estimated total woody biomass is 480m tons The main agricultural residues are approx 8m tons

Alcohol fuels The country produces a lot of alcohol that can be refined and used for fuels. main sources of alcohol are sugar molasses, cassava, finger millet, sorghum and banana. Most of these beverages are locally distilled using very old inefficient distillation systems yielding

ethanol contents of about 6-11%. Annual consumption is over 320 million litres of pure ethanol, which has almost half the same energy

value of the total fossil fuel imported in 2004

Bio-diesel Uganda produces a lot of vegetable oils from sun flower, cotton seed, sesame, palm and other oil

seeds. The current vegetable oil production is estimated to be close to 400,000 tons per annum of which

146,000 tons are exported.

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TanzaniaBiogas Small-scale biogas generation to meet basic energy

requirements for cooking, heating and lighting for rural households has been demonstrated in a GEF-funded project

The project seeks to address technical, financial, and informational barriers to the implementation of biogas technology in order to increase incomes, improve home air quality, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The project‘s strategy is to integrate livestock into the farming system and promote the production of biogas for energy

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TanzaniaBiogas

The project began when scientists from Tanzania learned about a low-cost, tubular plastic bio-digester being used in Vietnam. They adapted it to Tanzanian conditions, and then began seeking ways to integrate its use into the farming system, ensuring its sustainability.

The bio-digester produces gas fuel for cooking, heating, and lighting. Total energy provided by a 4m3 is 1m3 gas per day, equivalent to 0.5 litres of kerosene.

It costs about $ 100 and takes about 4 hours to assemble.

For proper functioning, the digester requires dung from 1-2 cows, 5-8 pigs or 4 able-bodied people on a daily basis.

The digester also requires an adequate water supply, ideally operating on 2 parts water for one part manure.

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Rwanda Wood and other biomass account for 93% of energy consumption in

Rwanda. At the current rate of wood consumption (1.2 kg/day/person in rural areas), reserves would run out by 2010-2015 if nothing was changed. 500.000 ha/yr of afforestated land would be needed to achieve a wood production/harvesting equilibrium state.

There are unused biomass potentials, such as briquette production from papyrus. It is estimated that 75 ktOE of papyrus briquettes could be produced at cost competitive to charcoal with an estimated yield of 16t/ha.

Burundi Burundi has immense forest and agricultural resources that can be

converted into energy. In addition, as an agricultural country, Burundi generates a lot of agricultural residues which can be converted into energy as well.

Wood and peat account for 94% of energy consumption in Burundi. Peat offers an alternative to increasingly scarce firewood and charcoal as a domestic energy source. The government is promoting peat production.

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Bio-energy

Thermal Use and Cogeneration

Biomass can be used on thermal basis in order to produce electricity and warmth / cold. In Kenya re-usable wastes from agricultural production are estimated to nearly 2.7 million tons. In Uganda biomass is estimated to be 14 million tons / year.

The potential output from the use of bagasse in sugar plants is estimated to about 550 GWh.

In Tanzania a first wood power station with a capacity of 2.25 MW is in operation.

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Biogas

Biogas is generated in very limited quantities from liquid manure, mainly used for cooking to replace firewood. There are each in Tanzania and Kenya over 100 stations in operation. Some sources mention for Tanzania more than 400 household stations.

Leguruti village in Kilimanjaro region in northern Tanzania

A bio-gas converter, the first of its type in East Africa, is being tested by the 120 members of the local coffee farmers' group. The gas can be used instead of diesel to power machines used by the farmers to process the raw coffee they grow.

Success Stories

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Currently there is no industrial use of biogas

Up scaling of the technologies for larger quantities still has to be undertaken.

Future potential is seen in the use of biogas from waste (including

wastewater) – such as from sugar industry.

settlement’s waste Rwanda is developing

large programmes for the rural areas

Rwanda and Uganda are also using human waste in prisons

Biogas: Industrial Use

Rwanda Prison Cooking Project • Rwandan prison project using

methane gas from inmates' toilet waste won the global Ashden Award environment award.

• cut firewood spending by $44,000 • The residue sewage is then used as

fertiliser on crops to feed each institution's 10,000 prisoners.

• 5 of the largest jails have biogas plants, either in operation or under construction. E.g. Cyangugu prison, uses biogas in 5 out of the 9 boilers reducing the firewood bill by more than half.

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Tanzania

Bio-diesel from Jatropha Popularly known as mmbono in Kiswahili, the

multi-use jatropha curcas is a perennial crop that grows into bushes of up to six meter high in areas with semi-arid land

The crop has been grown for centuries and used for traditional medicine, lubricant or fuel.

Since the nuts and leaves are inedible both for human beings and animals the plant serves traditionally for fencing fields

The challenge is to ensure increases in production of the multi-use crop ready for processing them into the fuel.

This would enable development of a conversion plant for bio-diesel production

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Devoted to cultivation and use of Jatropha plants have determined the optimal distance between

seedlings and water demand during the different periods of growth. Jatropha fields and hedges have been cultivated in

different heights and on different grounds. different Kakute farms near Arusha and Moshi, have yielded a reliable crop,

Mbinga / Songea 20,000 trees Pilipili / Songea 6,000 trees Ligano / Songea 2,000 trees Ifakara / Songea 8,000 trees Mabama / Kigoma 15,000 trees

Depending on the soil and climatic conditions, 2 to 4 tons of the oil-containing nuts can be harvested annually per hectare when a distance of 2.5 m between trees is respected

400 to 700 ltr high-quality per ha oil can be obtained via manual or motor press.

“Power from pure plant oil” Project Kakute Research Farm, Arusha, Northern Tanzania

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Conclusion The region has enormous quantities of biomass.

The production of biofuels e.g. bio diesel can be developed.

Beside palm oil, the jatropha nut in particular has a bright future in East Africa.

Since jatropha is an indigenous plant characterized by its very modest soil requirements, it can be cultivated in regions, which are not suitable for agricultural production. Therefore the so-called sleeping land is available on a larger scale than the actual high-value farmland.

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Conclusions The cultivation of Jatropha Curcas plants is sustainable

and CO2-neutral since it absorbs exactly the same amount of CO2 gas during its growth as it produces while running the engine.

Its characteristics make jatropha nuts are very appropriate for decentral application in rural areas.

The jatropha nut can be pressed with very simple means. The oil can be used with little effort in diesel generators.

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Recommendations Large scale cultivation of jatropha should be promoted

A biodiesel processing plant should be developed in the Region

An effective process for gaining the oil and limiting the distance which the fuel has to be transported to the consumer should be explored.

Rwanda’s example of supplementing conventional systems with innovative biofuel systems should be emulated

Research in biofuels from local resources should be expanded and local experts supported to venture in this field

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Thank you for your attention