Friday, September 24, 2010

Angola eyes hydropower expansion potential

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE68M08W20100923

Angola eyes hydropower expansion potential
Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:33am GMT

LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola currently only uses a fraction of its
hydropower potential but the African nation is prepared to invest
billions of dollars in coming years to rebuild dams destroyed by a
civil war that ended in 2002.
Secretary of State for Energy Joao Borges said Angola's powerful
rivers had the potential to generate 18 gigawatts of energy but his
country was currently only producing 4.4 percent of that capacity.

"The rest of the water is lost to the sea, without any use," state-
owned news agency Angop cite-d Borges as saying on Thursday.

He said his government plans to rebuild dams destroyed by Angola's
three-decade long civil war in a bid to take advantage of the
country's hydropower capacity.

Earlier this month, Minister of State Carlos Feijo said his government
would invest $18 billion until 2016 to overhaul dams and power grids
in the country's biggest power sector investment to date.

Angola, which rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer, will
finance this investment with money from a soon-to-be-established oil
fund, Feijo said at the Sept 13 news conference.

The Angolan government has also said it plans to open tenders for
foreign and local Angolan companies to rebuild the dams.

� Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved

http://www.ifandp.com/article/007313.html

Angola rebuilds dams to realise 18GW hydropower potential
under News September 24th, 2010 by IFandP Newsroom
Angola is preparing to invest billions of dollars in the next few
years to rebuild dams destroyed by the civil war that ended in 2002.
The country�s rivers have the potential to generate 18GW of energy,
according to Secretary of State for Energy Joao Borges. He added that
Angola was only using 4.4% of its hydropower capacity. �The rest of
the water is lost to the sea, without any use.�

Earlier this month, Minister of State Carlos Feijo announced
government plans to invest US$18bn until 2016 to overhaul dams and
power grids � the largest power sector investment to date in the
African nation. It is expected that the government will finance the
investment with money from a soon-to-be-established oil fund. Last
year, Angola produced 87.4Mt of oil, placing it a close second to
Nigeria (99.1Mt) in African oil production.
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