Inga Dam

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Inga I dam, with the feeding canal for Inga II in the foreground.

Inga dam projects, as of 2006.

Official projections for Inga III and Grand Inga, as of 2006.

The Inga Dams, located in western Democratic Republic of the Congo 140 miles southwest of Kinshasa, are hydroelectric dams on the largest waterfalls in the world, Inga falls. Here the Congo river drops 96 metres and has an average flow of 42,476 m³/s.

1 Current dams
2 Expansion plans
3 Africa's electric energy disparity
4 References

[edit] Current dams

Currently, the two hydroelectric dams, Inga I and Inga II, operate at low output. The existing dams are famous white elephants of former Président Mobutu Sese Seko, part of the Inga-Shaba project. They also served a political purpose, by allowing Kinshasa to control the energy supply of the sometimes rebellious Shaba province.

[edit] Expansion plans

Plans are underway to rehabilitate the two dams. Also, there are plans for Inga III and Grand Inga, two massive new hydroelectric stations.^[1]

Projections indicate that Inga III would generate 4,500 MegaWatts of electricity. Inga 3 is the centerpiece of the Westcor partnership, which envisions the interconnection of the electric grids of the DRC, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, and South Africa. The World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, bilateral donors and the southern African power companies have all expressed interest in pursuing the project, estimated to cost USD $80 billion.

Grand Inga would generate 39,000 MW - very significant to boost the energy needs of the African continent at a cost of $80 billion. Connecting Inga to a continent-wide electricity grid for main population centres would cost $10 billion more (est. 2000). This would be the world's largest hydroelectric project. Critics contend the huge amounts of money required for the project would be better spent with smaller scale, localized energy projects that would target meeting the needs of Africa's poor majority. Moreover, there is preoccupation about the enormous environmental impact caused by the new dam.

The NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) with a great involvement of South African electric power company ESKOM has suggested to start the Grand Inga project in 2010.^[2] With a capacity of 39GW the big dam can produce annually 250 TWh alone for a total of 370 TWh for the whole site. In 2005 Africa produced 550 TWh (600 kWh per capita). If the dam was to be completed somewhere in the 2020s the continent may be producing more than 1000 TWh at the time making its contribution less than 20% (still significant though).

[edit] Africa's electric energy disparity

The electric energy disparity in the continent makes Africa between the tropics the most in need of many small or big energy projects equivalent to Great Inga. The 550 TWh were produced in 2005 as follow:

230 TWh (42%): South Africa with 5.5% of the continent population (4500 kWh per capita)

150 TWh (27%): Five northern African nations with 16.7% of the continent population: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya (1000 kWh per capita)

170 TWh (31%): The rest of the continent or intertropical Africa with 77.8% of the continent population (250 kWh per capita)

There is a common false belief saying that the Grand Inga can produce enough electricity for the whole continent.[1] That was true before the 1990s.[2] [3] The continent has an annual economic growth of 5%. In 2005 six nations from the north and south regions with 22% of African population used 70% of the total electric energy produced. The remaining 47 nations with 78% of African population shared 30% equivalent to a per capita of 250 kWh on average. Those 47 countries are working hard to meet the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.[4] Doubling their per capita electric production in the next decade to 500 kWh means that the continent will need at least 1000 TWh from its 550 TWh in 2005.