By Daniel Itai.
(News of The South) – Angola is set to buy 5000MW from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Grand Inga hydropower plant project at a proposed fee of US$14bn, Angola’s minister of Natural Resources and Petroleum, Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, has revealed.
The country will require electricity generated by the dam from 2025, and will purchase it on condition the fee doesn’t exceed US$30/MWh.
Angolan and Congolese officials are already working on plans to export 100MW of power from the existing Inga I and II facilities to Angola’s Cabinda province.
The Grand Inga project is estimated to produce 40 000MW of power which is enough to provide power to nearly half of the continent.
Commenting on the sidelines of the project, Wale Shonibare, acting vice president of the African Development Bank said, “close to 600 million people in the continent still lack energy access, despite Africa’s abundant energy resources, especially renewables such as wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal. Bridging the energy access gap, and catalyzing economic growth, requires substantial investments into Africa’s energy sector.”
The Grand Inga Dam is the world’s largest suggested hydropower scheme. It is the cornerstone of a grand vision to help the continent with a wide power system. It is predicted that about US$80 billion could be enough to develop the project. This will include placing of transmission lines across the continent.
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