Bugala Power Station is a

biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with ...

-fired thermal power plant located on

Bugala Island Bugala Island, in Uganda, is the Lake island#Naturally occurring lake islands, by area, tenth-largest lake island in the world. With an area of , it is also the second largest island in Lake Victoria, after Tanzania's Ukerewe Island, and the thi ...

, in

Kalangala District Kalangala, also known as Ssesse, is a district in Central Uganda. The district is coterminous with the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria and does not have territory on mainland Uganda. Like other Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town' ...

, in the Ssese Islands Archipelago, on

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...

, in south-central

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

Location

The power station is located on Bugala Island, the largest island in the Ssese Islands Archipelago, in Kalangala District, in Lake Victoria,

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

's largest fresh-water lake, in Uganda's Central Region. This location is near the town of

Kalangala Kalangala is a town in Kalangala District in the Central Region of Uganda. It is the headquarters of the district. Location Kalangala is on the northern shore of Bugala Island, the largest of the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. It is approxima ...

, where the district headquarters are located, approximately nautical , by water, southwest of the town of

Entebbe Entebbe is a city in Central Uganda. Located on a Lake Victoria peninsula, approximately southwest of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. Entebbe was once the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda prior to independence, in 1962. The c ...

, on the mainland.

Overview

Bugala Power Station is integrated in design and construction with the palm oil processing plant owned by Bidco Oil Refineries Limited. Bidco owns a

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...

plantation on

, where the power station is located. The oil processing factory crushes the palm oil fruits into crude palm oil. The residue is burned, generating

heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

, which is used to boil water, creating

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. The steam is used to turn turbines and create

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

in the process. The electricity is used within the factory and any excess is sold to the neighboring town of

. Power is also generated by burning fibers from the tree trunks, known as

bagasse Bagasse ( ) is the dry pulpy fibrous material that remains after crushing sugarcane or sorghum stalks to extract their juice. It is used as a biofuel for the production of heat, energy, and electricity, and in the manufacture of pulp and building ...

. Construction of the power station was completed and commissioned in March 2010. The power plant and oil processing factory is a joint effort between the

Ugandan Government Uganda is a presidential republic in which the President of Uganda is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government business. There is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is ...

, the

International Fund for Agricultural Development The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD; french: link=no, Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA)) is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations that works to address ...

(

IFAD The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD; french: link=no, Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA)) is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations that works to address ...

), the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

and Oil Palm Uganda. Oil Palm Uganda is a

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...

between

Wilmar International Wilmar International Limited (); is a Singaporean food processing and investment holding company with more than 300 subsidiary companies. Founded in 1991, it is one of Asia's leading agribusiness groups alongside the COFCO Group. It ranks amongst ...

, a conglomerate that specializes in the development of agricultural plantations and Bidco Oil Refineries Limited, an oil processing company.

Uganda Palm Oil Project

Bugala Power Station is a byproduct of the Uganda Palm Oil project. The project was co-funded by Oil Palm Uganda which provided US$120 million, while

provided a loan of US$19.9 million. The Government of Uganda contributed US$12 million for land, electricity and roads. Local farmers contributed US$3.16 million through labor, equity and land. The power station and oil processing factory cost US$10 million to construct. Bidco already maintains a palm oil refinery in Uganda, located in Jinja, Uganda's second industrial city. , the acreage under palm trees by out-growers, had grown to over . The target of , under palm trees by outgrowers is expected to be attained in a few more years. By 2014, the size of the palm oil plantation had grown to , with plans to expand to .

Shareholding

The investment profile of the Uganda Palm Oil Project is summarized in the table below:

References

External links