Hydropower Association of Rwanda has declared East Africa as where Africa’s small hydropower potential lies by 83% with Kenya and Ethiopia leading the neighboring countries respectively.
Speaking at a technical workshop focused on small hydropower opportunities hosted at the African Utility Week, in Cape Town, Dan Klinck, the chairperson of the Hydro-power Association of Rwanda and CEO of East African Power, confirmed the reports and added that Africa’s small hydro-power potential is at 7,3GW
According to Klinck, the African small hydropower market has great potential with East Africa leading the market by 209MW of installed capacity and a potential of 6,296MW. Following in the second place is Central Africa with 76MW installed capacity and 328MW potential.
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Growth development
Dan Klinck further narrowed down the numbers and cited statistics from the World Hydro Report shows that Uganda has the highest installed capacity in East Africa of 35MW.However Kenya and Ethiopia were listed among the leading neighboring countries having significant potential of small hydropower estimated at 3,000MW and 1,500MW respectively, following closely with 1,000MW of the potential capacity is Rwanda and according to Klinck, this potential presents $1 billion in hydro investments.
He acknowledged on the massive growth in development in the hydropower industry of said the developments are aligned towards driving the goal of universal access to electricity in the countries. He further stated that his company has deployed a number of projects in Rwanda including the 438kW Busara plant and revealed that more 40 sites are currently under private sector development, with a capacity of 85MW.
