The Democratic Republic of Congo is looking to breathe new life into the Grand Inga Dam project, which is said to be the world\u2019s largest proposed hydroelectric scheme that could produce sufficient energy to power east, central and southern African countries.<\/p>\n
The project on the Congo River could have up to eight separate dams that would produce 43,500MW (4.35GW) of electricity \u2013 more than twice the power generation of\u00a0Three Gorges Dam\u00a0in China, and over a third of the total electricity currently produced in Africa.<\/p>\n
But since mooted ten years ago, it has faced delay over several issues such as contractors, timelines and funding sources for the $80 billion needed to finance the construction of the dams and the establishment of transmission lines.<\/p>\n
That will be the focus of discussions when leaders from concerned regions meet in a conference next month, which is\u00a0organized by President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u00a0of the DRC and is expected to be attended by delegates from Angola, Kenya, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. The April 28 meeting in Kinshasa is backed by the African Union while Egyptian head Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and potential investors have been invited to help kick off the project.<\/p>\n
In addition to discussing the feasibility of the Inga Dam project, officials say the move by Tshisekedi is meant to garner regional political support for the mega power project that is seen as the ultimate solution for Africa\u2019s power shortage and green energy.<\/p>\n
DRC hosts the\u00a0largest concentration of\u00a0hydropower potential\u00a0in the world at the Inga Falls, about 150 km from the mouth of the\u00a0Congo\u00a0River. With this, the country could provide a significant portion \u2013 up to 40 percent \u2013 of Africa\u2019s electricity demand but harnessing that potential has not been particularly easy.<\/p>\n
The country presently has two Inga projects that were completed in the 1970s and 1980s respectively. And in late 2018, authorities announced a deal for a Spanish-Chinese consortium to develop the Inga 3 project on the Congo River rapids, which is one of the world\u2019s most powerful and centre to the country\u2019s energy plans.<\/p>\n
But the joint venture idea was resisted last year. Spanish firm ACS withdrew from the possible consortium that included China\u2019s Three Gorges Corp and could have seen $14 billion invested in the third dam with funding from the African Development Bank.\u201cThere has been an Inga 3 development agreement for a few years now. But we can go from Inga 1 to Inga 8,\u201d DRC Minister of Water Resources and Energy, Eustache Muhanzi Mubembe, said.<\/p>\n
General Electric has been contracted to renovate the neglected Inga 1 and 2 dams and will be working on Inga 3 after signing an agreement worth $1 billion \u2013 the largest U.S. investment in Congo. But the deal with the American firm does not prevent other partners from being part of the project, according to Mubembe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe development agreement remains open. We have had Chinese and Spanish contractors since 2016 on the Inga 3 development agreement. And there are Spanish contractors who have left the agreement. Nobody chased them away. The DRC would like to have everyone in it. Americans, Chinese, Indians, Egyptians\u2026are all welcome,\u201d the minister was quoted as saying by The East African.<\/p>\n
AfDB will be funding the redesign of the Inga 3 dam, Tshisekedi said in a recent State of the Nation address. That would raise the output from the initial 4,800 megawatts to reach 11,000 megawatts or more, and Inga could make DRC \u201cthe heart of the world\u2019s clean energy production system,\u201d the President added.<\/p>\n
With AfDB\u2019s permission, the DRC is now inviting bidders while officials are in talks with the regional bank for an agreed date to commence construction. Confirmation is expected in the next few days, Mubembe said.<\/p>\n
A major and recurrent barrier to implementing the hydropower project after many years of conception was the political instability in the DRC. With relative stability now in the country after President Tshisekedi came into power last year, the DRC is moving fast to revive the mega-project that could also help save its\u00a0endangered forest resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Democratic Republic of Congo is looking to breathe new life into the Grand Inga Dam project, which is said to be the world\u2019s largest proposed hydroelectric scheme that could produce sufficient energy to power east, central and southern African countries. The project on the Congo River could have up to eight separate dams that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,29,20,19],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n