Executive Summary
African factories and businesses suffer frequent electrical power outages and only a third of
Africans have access to reliable electricity at home. This limits economic growth, and life expectancy is
15 years behind developing countries that have made the transition to universal electrification. Forced
to cook, light, and heat their homes with wood, charcoal, and animal dung, over 400,000 Africans die
each year from respiratory diseases caused by indoor air pollution.
Universal electrification will help solve Africa’s problem of indoor air pollution and reduce the
outdoor health risks of the recent “dieselization” of Africa. Soot-spewing backup diesel engines kick in
when the grid goes down, and many countries spend more on dirty backup power than on the electrical
grid itself. However, emissions from Africa’s continuing coal-fired generation of electricity could at the
same time add to illness and mortality from outdoor air pollution, as was the case in China’s dramatic
30-year transition to universal electrification.
Africa is projected to double its electricity capacity in the next 20 years. “Renewable” electricity from
wind and solar with battery storage is not mature or reliable enough to meet this demand. Electricity
from natural gas and oil are expected to be part of the solution, but the infrastructure for moving gas
and oil to power plants is in most countries too costly to build and maintain.
There is a strong consensus among power analysts that Africa’s cheap, abundant, easily transportable coal will continue to be used on a large scale for electricity. Without modern “scrubbing” and
other technologies to neutralize pollutants, Africa could be trading one health crisis for another.
U.S. policy at present opposes coal-fired electricity in Africa. Obama administration policies,
based on concern about emissions of the non-polluting greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and
their possible future impact on extreme weather, continue to guide U.S. policy. The U.S.-funded World
Bank and African Development Bank no longer support coal plants, preferring plants using natural gas,
which produces about half the CO2 emissions of coal per unit of energy. The U.S. Power Africa program
has taken the same stance. This leaves the construction of coal plants to China and others who have
scrubbing technology but do not require it in their foreign construction.
American “new-tech” electricity generation and pollution scrubbing is in operation at the Turk
Plant in Arkansas. A field visit and interviews by the CO2 Coalition confirm that the technology virtually
eliminates health hazards from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. Water for the
boiler, cooling for re-use, and scrubbing comes from a nearby dammed river, and much is re-used and
recycled. However, no similar plants are under construction in America because of the fall in natural gas
prices due to another remarkable American technology, “fracking.”
Could this American technology work in Africa? After all, Africa is littered with “white elephants”
– projects that worked well in developed countries but were not transferable to Africa’s physical,
infrastructure, regulatory, political, and economic spheres.
The answer is a qualified “yes” – for a few
test cases at first with supportive governments with viable plans for maintenance and pricing. The U.S.
Millennium Challenge Corporation’s “good governance” eligibility standards provide a well-developed
method of initial assessment.
The paper also mentions re renewables and indoor air pollution:
The so-called renewables – primarily wind and solar – are predicted to soar from virtually nothing
today to match coal at 125,000 MTOE in 2040. However, at present, renewables are not mature or
reliable enough to provide significant grid electricity in Africa. Major technological advances and cost
reductions in generation and storage of wind and solar power will be required for this prediction to
be realized.
Tragically, the amount of African energy coming from solid fuels like wood and dung is also expected
to rise by 2040, although falling from a half to a third of total energy. If clean-coal electricity were to be
promoted rather than restricted by developed countries’ policies in Africa, it would take an even bigger
bite out of solid fuels and indoor air pollution.
In Part IV, the paper talks of American Clean Coal Technology: The Turk Plant and Hele Design:
Above is a schematic of a controlled coal power plant like Turk, incorporating its three sequential
air quality systems: Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) of Nitrogen Oxides, an Electrostatic Precipitator
(ESP) to remove Particulate Matter such as soot, and Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) to reduce Sulfur
Dioxide.
To read more of this well-researched paper, go to: https://co2coalition.org/
