July 30, 2010 – WINDHOEK, Namibia (AlertNet) – The area around Otjiwarongo in Namibia’s heartland is a green sea of short, shrubby trees as far as the eye can see. While beautiful to some, this bush is an invader species and seen by ranchers as a dreaded pest that pushes out nutritious grasses.
Since the 1950s, bad grazing practices have led to the bush taking over 26 million hectares of Namibia’s rangeland – an area the size of New Zealand. That costs the country’s beef farmers $160 million a year in lost earnings, in an industry that farmers say accounts for 3 to 6 percent to Namibia’s gross domestic product.
But what if the bush could be fed into a power plant, clearing land for grazing and simultaneously supplying Namibia with clean, renewable electricity in a region that is starved of energy?
“(Burning) wood to make electricity is one of the cheapest renewable energy options available,” said Robert Schultz, head of energy projects for the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN), a think tank.
“And it is quick,” he said. “Sixty minutes after powering up the plant, kilowatts are flowing into the grid. This makes it suitable to meet unexpected peaks in demand.”
PLENTY OF BUSH TO BURN
A typical 4,000 hectare (10,000 acre) Namibian farm could provide enough wood to power more than 100 high-income homes for 25 years, the life of a generating unit, Schultz estimated. By conservative estimates, Namibia has enough bush to sustainability supply power to 600,000 high-income homes over that period.
With European Union funds, Schultz’s think tank is starting a pilot project to turn Namibia’s bush predicament into a biomass energy project.
On a farm 90 kilometres (56 miles) north of Otjiwarongo, construction has started on a power plant that by September will feed electricity into the national grid.
Cut brush will be burned in a low-oxygen environment to extract wood gas, which is then cleaned, cooled and burned in an internal combustion engine to make electricity.
Read More – http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/60167/2010/06/30-164753-1.htm
