KivuWatt Power Station is a
methane gas
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ear ...
-fired thermal power plant in
Rwanda.
Location
The power plant is located in Kibuye,
Karongi District
Karongi is a district (''akarere'') in Western Province, Rwanda. The capital being Rubengera, the district also contains Kibuye, the provincial capital and a major Rwandan lakeside resort. It is one of the districts with the least population de ...
, in the
Western Province of Rwanda, approximately , by road, west of
Kigali, the capital and largest city in the country.
Overview
KivuWatt project will extract
methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ea ...
from the waters of
Lake Kivu
Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. Lake Kivu empties into the Ruzizi River, whic ...
and use the gas to generate electricity. The generated power will be purchased by
Rwanda Electricity Corporation
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equato ...
(RECO), the Rwandan electricity utility.
The $200 million project, owned by ContourGlobal and executed in cooperation with
Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technolo ...
, is expected to add 26MW of generating capacity in its first phase (ongoing now) and eventually scale up to 100MW in the coming years. In a developed country, the current 25MW would provide enough energy for 45,000 people.
Phase 1 of the project, with capacity of 25MW, was expected to start commercial operation in 2012. Phase 2 of the project, with additional capacity of 75 MW, is expected to start construction six months after the commissioning of Phase 1. The project is being developed by KivuWatt Limited, a subsidiary of ContourGlobal, under a concession agreement made with the Government of Rwanda in 2009.
KivuWatt Limited plans to extract some of the estimated 60 billion cubic meters of methane gas trapped under Lake Kivu and convert that gas into electricity, something that has not been done on a large commercial scale before. Construction concluded in November 2015 and the power station was under testing and calibration from November 2015 until commissioning in June 2016.
The KivuWatt power plant was inaugurated by Rwanda's president
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame (; born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who is the 4th and current president of Rwanda since 2000. He previously served as a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Uganda-based rebel ...
on 16 May 2016.
See also
References
{{reflist
External links
Rwanda harnesses lake "demons" to power the economyKivuWatt Power Project, RwandaKivuWatt Machinery Worth Rwf700 Million Stuck In Kenya Over Dispute
Lake Kivu’s Great Gas GambleKiller Lake's renewable potential
2015 establishments in Rwanda
Natural gas-fired power stations in Rwanda