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This video sees BBC investigating journalist Tom Heap traveling Africa and discovering how they intend to get electricity to satisfy demand which currently massively exceeds supply.
Science is at the core of the solution with Geo thermal energy production potentially solving the country’s electricity problems. When traveling around the Great Rift Valley we discover how the sheer scale and make up of mother earth can literally be what ends up powering the country. With cracks in the earth forming at random places within the valley, sulphur can be smelt from miles away. To harness the heat for electricity you must find pools deep within the water.
The search is going to be far and wide, the rift valley is stretches a massive 4000 miles long it splits through the earth’s surface in brutal but beautiful manner. The same power that lies beneath the ground will be what comes out and spews the power that’s really needed. As the earth widens cracks become evident and that’s where the plants will be.
Rigs have been set up all over Kenya with drills boring down over 2/3 miles into the earth. The aim is to set up over 100 drills just in Kenya. The nature of drilling really brings to life the power we sit on top of on the earth’s crust. Harnessing the power of the earth’s core is really a ground-breaking scientific breakthrough for Africa which says “it needs about 10 billion dollars between now and 2030.Delivering power to the people will be a massive task in itself. Most Africans that do not have access to electricity have been used to living life around the natural light however now solar energy has helped many families.
A quiet revolution is also happening in Kenya with solar energy. There is a company called “Solar Roller” which is out and about across Africa spreading the message of solar energy and also selling its very own mini solar penny lights to Africans in some of the most secluded places. The price of solar power facilities have gone down massively in recent years and so they have become far more accessible. Illuminating, cheap and tough solar powered lights and batteries have become massively popular and many teachers and families are out purchasing solar lights for homes and school.
The effects of solar energy and the opportunities it has created have literally improved the education of African children tenfold. School teachers have noted massive improvements in the grades of their children.
Let’s hope geothermal energy can really give a green solution for Africans and massively improve their situation.
Links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p015ln7r/p015dmf5 , http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/geothermal-energy/tech.html ,
By Alex Mitchison
