13 Oct (NucNet): The introduction of nuclear power to African nations brings many challenges, not least of which is the very large upfront capital investment required, a report published today by the Paris-based International Energy Agency says.
The report, ‘Africa Energy Outlook’, says other challenges include the need to develop technical and regulatory capacity, and to have the electricity demand and infrastructure capacity to absorb the resulting baseload supply.
South Africa is the only African country with existing nuclear power generation capacity and has said it intends to build more reactors. Some African countries, including Kenya and Namibia, have said they are interested in introducing nuclear power into their domestic mix.
In its New Policies Scenario, in which the greater part of electricity supplied to businesses and households in sub-Saharan Africa continues to come from centralised power plants, and is delivered through national and regional power grids, nuclear would provide three percent of total generation by 2040, the same as in 2012.
If planned new units are built, South Africa’s nuclear share could increase from around five percent today to 15 percent in 2040.
The report says sub-Saharan Africa includes three of the 10 largest uranium resource-holders in the world – Namibia, Niger and South Africa. While exploration has increased uranium resource estimates over the last decade, prevailing prices dictate when mining commences.
At prices lower than $80 per kilogramme of uranium (kgU), $130/kgU and $260/kgU respectively, Africa holds over six percent, 19 percent and 21 percent of world uranium resources.
Sub-Saharan African resources are relatively accessible, regulators are flexible and labour costs are low, resulting in it providing a significant share of global production (18 percent). Namibia provides 8.2 percent of global production, Niger 7.7 percent, Malawi 1.2 percent and South Africa 1.1 percent.
Coal is the second-largest component of the sub-Saharan energy mix after bioenergy, but this is wholly attributable to its large-scale use in South Africa, where it accounts for around 70 percent of primary demand.
Bioenergy dominates the sub-Saharan energy mix, mainly accounted for by the traditional use of solid biomass – mainly fuelwood – in the residential sector.
The report is online:
http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEO2014_AfricaEnergyOutlook.pdf
