Undeniably, the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas in a bid to produce electricity has long been the prime and largest source of emissions—which has in turn caused environmental pollution in general. This situation highly prevails in developing countries. Ethiopia is not the exception of course along this line. The good news is countries are increasingly seeking ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as the science on climate change and its impacts on the global economy have become clearer and more urgent these days.
This piece tries to deal with what is expected of Ethiopia to meet its energy demand with many energy sources untapped so far. Surprisingly, if one would like to get a nation with low energy sector in Africa, they can find Ethiopia, but it is endowed with various energy resources like hydropower, geothermal, solar, wind and the likes. If this is so, the country has to meet two ends via well exploiting its energy sources and meeting the acute energy demand of its citizens.
Needless to state, the vast majority of the Ethiopian population, about 85 per cent, does live in rural areas, where modern energy services are rarely available and largely rely on traditional biomass energy sources, such as cow dung, wood and agricultural residues for cooking and heating.
Keeping this concern in mind, The Ethiopian Herald had a short stay with Alemayehu Gobena, a graduate of Agricultural Economics from Hawassa University. He said, “Ethiopia has one of the lowest electricity consumption per capita in Africa though it is endowed with abundant renewable energy resources, which can meet the ambitions of countrywide electrification. Recognizing that energy access and security is a crucial factor to economic growth, the country is now working to have energy security and diversification of energy supply.”
According to Alemayehu, the country has so far been incapable of quenching its people’s energy demand despite its abundant energy sources. The rationale behind perhaps for the majority of the Ethiopian people living in rural areas where electricity access is limited as the national grids location is quite far from rural communities’ residents.
As to him, it can be argued that the current energy system is unlikely to adequately satisfy the projected energy demand in different sectors. This calls for energy transition to be one of the highest policy priorities in the country. Universal access to electricity especially in rural areas could substantially contribute to reduce poverty. The provision of reliable electricity to industries and services could help realize the long-awaited structural transformation in the country. The potential benefits of energy transition in Ethiopia also transcend boundaries as they entail economic benefits to the neighboring countries.
He said, “Ethiopia has abundant renewable energy resources even left extra for foreign countries and will make huge income for country but, presently given least consideration concerning with the existing potential and exploitability rate. The government has been working hard to find the better renewable energy technology to meet rural community energy demand. Besides, the implementation of renewable energy technologies certainly leads usage and profitable allocation of energy sources throughout the country’s un-electrified rural households even in specifically grid-connected areas as an alternative.”
He further stated that the problem of access will be more of a challenge in Ethiopia. “Providing 60 percent segments of the nation, who are leading life with smoke and cow dung soot, with modern energy services has to perhaps be one of the primary goals of the energy industry in the nation,” he noted.
Apart from having a number of alternatives to generate energy with a view to reaching out to the unreached, hydropower has been one of the main role players in Ethiopian power systems and is the most used renewable energy source since the country possesses a number of active rivers with varied magnitude and volume, he stated.
He also said that it is undeniable fact that hydropower is attractive because of the large scale of potential development, environmentally friendly nature and the low average costs of electricity generated than any other energy generation technology and source.
He further stated; “Since our country is one of the sub-Saharan African countries endowed with numerous rivers, lakes and ample water resources constituting a feasible hydropower potential, it has usually been referred as the power house of Africa. However, the country has utilized very minimal portion of its potential so far.”
Another person to whom The Ethiopian Herald approached for comment is Atnafu Bireda, who is an expert regarding natural resources and energy utilization. He has focused on one of the renewable resources Ethiopia does have—wind energy. He said; “Most wind resources are found close to coastal locations, mountain ranges and other natural passages in the eastern and northern regions of the African continent. Algeria, Egypt, Somalia, South Africa and Sudan are among the countries with the highest wind energy potentials.”
He said Ethiopia’s wind resource potential is very much limited and untapped though the country is located near the equator. As to him, there are few promising windy areas in Ethiopia located alongside the main east African rift valley, the north eastern escarpment of the country and the eastern part of the country. However, despite a tremendous potential of this energy system, the development of wind farm is in its early stages in Ethiopia, he added.
According to Atnafu, in the context of the Ethiopian power system, wind power can play a vital complementary role with hydroelectric power due to the natural cycle of high wind energy availability in the dry season during hydropower reservoirs are low in water, and it decreases in the wet seasons when the reservoirs are rapidly filling up with water.
This circumstance will in turn make wind power a crucial ingredient of the grid energy mix by improving the dependability of the system even in dry seasons.
“As to me, having a range of energy sources here and there in the country, getting access to electricity services for domestic consumption shouldn’t be a luxury service in the rural areas of Ethiopia. For instance, as close to 60 percent of the total population does not have access to electricity service in the country, the government of Ethiopia has to intensively invest in on hydroelectric dam construction so as to increase the coverage of electricity. However, the grid-line electricity supply in the scattered settlements of rural households of Ethiopia poses a challenge for connection,” he opined.
Frankly speaking, there should be provision of electricity service suitable and preferred by the rural households, and the community shall get various options of payment modalities, he added.
True, access to clean energy is of significantly useful and cardinal to the development of Ethiopia in particular and to that of Africa and other developing continents in general. Renewable sources have come to the forefront whenever people are talking about a secure and sustainable energy future. Undeniably, the charge competitiveness, the availability of resources and the ever fastest time to market of green technologies has been contributing to the spread of energy sustainable.
If the federal government and state administrations are to work in a collaborative manner and well identify a range of lucrative sources of energy, the life of most Ethiopians who have highly relied on traditional energy sources can be transformed and bringing about real difference would be easy.
Yes, he said Ethiopia needs to cope with key challenges related to energy security and diversification of energy supply recognizing that energy access and security are a crucial factor to economic growth and transformation.
He said, “In general, understanding the association between economic growth and development and energy consumption is of significantly useful in coming up with change and advancement, Ethiopia is expected to eye on all its resources to get prospered.” It is thought that an increasing share of renewable energy in the energy mix of a country can help meet the growing future demand for energy. Undeniably, renewable energy sources are capable of increasing diversity of energy sources and, potentially, contribute to energy security and to the long-term availability of energy supply.
Renewable energy sources can also promote regional development as they can be used in less developed areas without conventional energy sources, and could reduce costs associated with climate change.
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 12 APRIL 2022
