By Adedapo Adesanya
Cameroon has announced plans to build a $3 billion hydropower plant in line with plans to become a net exporter of electricity to neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, by 2035.
The project is an 810-megawatt Grand Eweng project that will be situated on the Sanaga River. It is going to be a joint venture between the government and the US-based energy company Hydromine Incorporated, making it the fifth hydro-project on the river.
The new installation will start generating power by 2028 and capacity will increase to over 1 gigawatt several years after, according to Mr Lucas Briger, Vice president of Development and Operations at the New York-based project developer.
He said the Grand Eweng was initially intended to supply the aluminium sector but due to rising demand in the nation of 25 million people, the government has since positioned the project to supply the general public.
The Central-African country which currently has about 1.5 gigawatts of installed power, could see demand grow to 3 gigawatts by 2035, according to its Energy Ministry.
President Paul Biya’s government has pledged to generate 25 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035, with a plan to export power to neighbours such as Chad, the Central African Republic, and even Nigeria, which currently generates less than 10,000 megawatts of electricity for a population of 200 million people.
Alternative sources like small hydro- and solar-power sources accounted for just 4.5 per cent of Cameroon’s installed capacity in 2019.
The Grand Eweng dam would follow the 420-megawatt Nachtigal project, which also harnesses the Sanaga River, and to which the Bank provided $784.5 million of financing in 2018.
Modupe Gbadeyanka