Viable option to power cuts

The current power crisis slowly eating up Uganda’s economy can be contained if the government develops a comprehensive policy on alternative energy. Researchers at Makerere University Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CEEC) have proposed a project, which when funded, will utilise agricultural waste for electricity production. Rural areas with plentiful agricultural produce but with no access to the national grid are most likely to benefit from the initiative. Properly treated, agricultural by-products (biomass) such as maize cobs, baggasse (fibrous residue remaining after the extraction of juice from the crushed stalks of sugar cane), coffee and rice husks, and sawdust can be a practical and environmentally friendly source of energy. Noble as it seems the project has attracted little interest from government technocrats. However, such countries as Bangladesh, China, and India have shown that with necessary support, generating electricity from agricultural waste is a viable option to power outages. The countries mainly use rice husks as the major raw material. Dr. Izael Pereira Da Silva, an energy expert at CEEC, Makerere University and lead researcher for the pilot project says biomass is a cheap way to produce electricity. While a unit of electricity currently costs Shs180 per Kilo Watt hour (KWh), according to him, the unit cost for the pilot project was to cost Shs40 per KWh, saving consumers about 80 per cent of the current electricity costs. According to Da Silva, the pilot project will generate 90MW (50 percent of the current national power production) for districts of Moyo and Adjumani. But for un known reasons, the government has remained reluctant. More than 85 percent of Ugandans live in rural areas with no access to electricity. Although the ministry estimates power consumption to have increased by 11.5 percent nationwide, power generation has since decreased to180MW from 270 MW. Investing in bio-resource is also advantageous since it attracts grants from financing sources related to the Kyoto protocol. Uganda is predominantly an agricultural country that produces large amounts of residues from agricultural and forestry sectors. According to a National Biomass study carried out recently, every hectare of maize cultivated produces an average of 3.7 tonnes of agricultural produce per annum. According to the 2002 census, approximately 138,750 tonnes of agricultural residue are produced annually from 7,500 hectares, of which 50 percent can be utilised for electricity production. Each year, rice mills produce big chunks of rice husks, with their disposal posing a headache to the millers. Rice husks are produced at major rice schemes as well as small mills. Apart from being environmentally friendly, use of biomass also brings additional income to the poor rural population. Kibimba (Tilda limited), for instance, produces 10,000 tonnes of rice husks per annum. Olweny Swamp Rice Irrigation Project produces 500 tonnes of rice husks. Other mills produce approximately 300 tonnes per annum. Kakira sugar works, Sugar corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL), and Kinyara Sugar Works utilise baggasse to meet their internal energy requirements. On average, 3.35 tonnes of baggasse are produced per tonne of sugarcane. Kakira, which is the largest, produces 750 tonnes of baggasse per day, producing 3MW of heat and power. Hima Cement factory uses 24 tonnes of coffee husks per day. 280,000 tonnes of coffee are produced annually, ensuring plentiful supply of coffee husks as a bio residue. Considering that Uganda is already reaping benefits of electricity from agricultural produce, it is important that the government seriously considers the proposal CEEC has put on table.