The use of energy in southern Africa in each sector, in urban and rural areas. The guiding factors are availability and affordability. Urban dwellers use more energy than the rural people, who are in the majority in most of the region. The rural areas largely depend on wood and charcoal for energy. The region’s energy sources are both non-renewable (fossil-fuel0based) and renewable(wind and solar).

The majority of people use fuelwood for energy in southern Africa. Eighty percent of the total energy consumed in the region comes from biomass – fuelwood, charcoal and crop residues such as maize stalks. Malawi and Tanzania derive over 90 percent of their energy from biomass while Zimbabwe, South Africa and Swaziland get below 50 percent each.

Disadvantaged people in cities tend to use fuelwood and charcoal for cooking and heating because they cannot afford electricity or the appliances. In Angola and Mozambique, where war drove millions of people from rural to urban areas, there is no electricity in their shanty homes.

They, therefore, depend on fuelwood and charcoal. In Angola, for example, 150,000 tonnes of charcoal are used annually in the urban areas.

A third of the charcoal is used for smelting in South Africa, another third is exported and the remainder is used in homes for barbecues and at picnics.

Just over half of Zambia’s fuelwood is converted to charcoal and every year the equivalent of 430 square kilometres of woodland – which is nearly three percent of Swaziland – is cleared to produce more than 113,660 tonnes of charcoal. Much of this is used in urban areas for cooking and heating.

Fuelwood is also used commercially in curing tobacco on farms. This uses much fuelwood in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Up to 60 cubic metres of wood (equivalent to a hectare of woodland) is used to cure each hectare of tobacco. Southern Africa clears over 1,400 sq km of indigenous woodland to cure tobacco.

The rural areas of Southern Africa are virtually not electrified. This is partly due to the dispersed settlements that are typical of most villages, making it expensive for electrification. It is also because villagers cannot afford installation and monthly electricity charges.

Most of the region’s rural people depend on fuelwood for energy, mainly for cooking and many other uses. Over 80 million cum of wood are burnt as household fuel yearly. This works out to an average of one cubic metre for each person annually.

Eighty-five percent of Tanzania’s total population of about 27 million, who live in rural areas, use fuelwood for virtually all their energy needs.

The use of biogas stoves is on the increase in Tanzania. The biogas comes from the fermentation of animal dung, producing methane which can be used for lightining or cooking. This is being tried in other countries in the region. The major restriction is lack of livestock to produce the dung, water to mix with the dung and sometimes, the labour required to collect both.

The fuelwood demand in southern Africa is growing to unsustainable levels, due to the population increase and the rate at which forests and woodlands are being cleared for agriculture.

Angola 5,539

Botswana 1,303

Lesotho 613

Malawi 7,814

Mozambique 15,022

Namibia 1,300

South Africa 7,078

Swaziland 560

Tanzania 32,240

Zambia 11,565

Zimbabwe 6,269

Coal is commonly used in urban and rural areas. South Africa has 43 billion tonnes of coal reserves, 8 percent of the continent’s known reserves, which are projected to last 550 years at current level of coal consumption. Coal generates 82 percent of the electricity in South Africa. The country uses about 120 million tonnes of coal annually of which 50 percent is for producing electricity, a quarter for homes and industry, and the remainder for producing chemicals.

Zimbabwe’s coal reserves are estimated at 10,6 billion tonnes even though about 2,2 billion are deemed exploitable.

Namibia has coal deposits at Aranos, Arandis and Hochfeld and there are plants to utilise them.

Botswana and Swaziland have underutilised but substantial coal reserves. Angola and Tanzania have coal reserves too.

Another fossil-fuel-based energy source is crude oil from which paraffin, petrol and diesel are derived. Only Angola has known crude oil deposits which have the potential to meet the entire region'’ energy needs. Southern Africa imports petroleum for domestic and industrial use.

The region spends millions of dollars on oil imports from the producing regions, notably the Middle East. It also spends millions of dollars on shipping. Landlocked countries such as Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, have to ferry the oil over great distances, incurring high transportation and insurance charges.

Oil is processed into paraffin, petrol and diesel for vehicles as well as for manufacturing other products. Low-income people in urban areas who cannot afford electricity in their homes and shelters use paraffin (kerosene) for lighting.

Malawi augments petrol supplies by blending (mixing0 it with ethanol extracted from sugar cane. It produces 12 million litres of ethanol per year, enough to fill 240,000 vehicles fitted with 50-litre petrol tanks. Zimbabwe used to produce 40 million litres of ethanol for blending until the 1991/92 drought devastated sugar cane production. Zambia has the potential to produce 20 million litres, Tanzania, 30 million litres and Swaziland 25 million litres of ethanol.

Hydroelectric power (HEP), electricity generated by water, is a major source of energy in the region, especially in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have great potential to develop HEP. Angola has the greatest hydroelectric potential of 23,000 megawatts (MW) which could meet all the electricity needs for its 11,5 million people. Mozambique is second with 15,000 MW; Zambia, 12,000MW;Tanzania, 9,500MW; and Zimbabwe, 3,800 MW.

Some households in cities and towns use electricity for lighting, heating and cooking while industries use it in manufacturing and for lighting. The source of electricity varies within and between countries.

In South Africa, urban areas use electricity generated from the Orange river. Zambian rivers generate hydroelectric power which is used in mining, manufacturing and urban areas.

Most of this electricity comes from the Kafue and Zambezi rivers. Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe'’ mining, manufacturing industries and urban households mostly use water-generated electricity.

Thermal energy from coal is a major source of electricity in South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is produced by burning coal to get steam to turn turbines. South Africa produces 38,000MW and exports some to Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and, on a limited scale, to Zimbabwe. The country generates 72 percent of its electricity (1992/3 and 1993.4 statistics) from the coal-fired Hwange Thermal Power Station.

Lesotho, which currently depends on South Africa for electricity, uses thermal power, so does Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. Mozambique also depends on this thermal power for much of its industrial and urban energy needs. However, if the war-damaged electricity lines from Cahora Bassa on the Zambezi river, are repaired, Mozambique’s urban and industrial areas will be able to use more hydroelectric power. There are plans to rehabilitate the infrastructure.

Fossil fuel reserves in SADC countries (1988)

Country Coal (mt) Natural Gas (bcm)

Angola 0 54

Botswana 2,425 0

Lesotho 0 0

Malawi 3 0

Mozambique 2422 65

Namibia ? ?

South Africa 43,000 ?

Swaziland 775 0

Tanzania 1,898 115

Zambia 69 0

Zimbabwe 1,187 0

Mt means million tonnes

Bcm means billion cubic metres

Coal includes both proven and probable reserves

South Africa is the only country in the region that generates electricity from nuclear power derived from uranium. Less than six percent of the South Africa’s electricity is provided from one site Koeberg, about 30 kilometres north of Cape Town. The production of nuclear energy is very expensive and the industry has admitted that nuclear plants are losing money. The nuclear fuel produced at Pelindaba is up to 20 times the price of fuel available on the world market.

Disposal of wastes from nuclear-power plants remains the key problem. Radioactivity takes tens of thousands of years or more to decay to acceptable levels. Medium and Low-level wastes (such as discarded equipment and disposable overalls worn by workers) are trucked from Koeberg to one of the few nuclear-waste disposal sites in the world, in the desert at Vaalputs in the northern Cape opened in 1987.

Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, may provide a long-term answer to energy needs in the region. The latter is particularly applicable to southern Africa which receives large amounts of sunlight all year round.

Solar (light and heat from the sun) energy is relatively plentiful and offers a promising solution to the demand for energy in future.

Use of solar cells to produce electricity is slowly making its way into rural areas. Botswana uses solar energy to desalinise water and has about 2,000 units used by households. In Zimbabwe, about 4,000 households, mostly in rural areas, use solar energy for lighting while Zambia, has 2,000 units.

Wind energy offers little scope for development due to the low wind speed in much of the region. However, coastal areas such as the Cape coast. Have good potential.

Though it may not be typical of the region, energy consumption in Zimbabwe gives an idea of energy consumption patterns in southern Africa: 50 percent comes from fuelwood, 15 percent from coal, 12 percent from electricity, 15 percent from petroleum products, 8 percent from coke and coke gas. There is need to increase the use of renewable energy resources in the region, especially of biogas and energy conserving stoves such as the twigs and bread stoves.

Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Energy for Development Research Centre

P.O. Box 1279, Luanda University of Cape Town

Angola Private Bag Rondebosch 7700

South Africa

African Energy Policy Research Network

University of Botswana Land Utilisation

P.Bag 0022, Gaborone P O Box 57, Mbabane

Botswana Swaziland

Ministry of Water, Energy and Mining Ministry of Water, Energy

P Bag A91, Maseru 100 and Minerals

Lesotho P O Box 9153, Dar es Salaam

Tanzani

Ministry of Energy and Mining

P Bag 309, Lilongwe 3 Ministry of Energy and Water

Malawi Development

P O Box 3055, Lusaka

Ministry of Industry and Energy Zambia

25 de Setembro Avenue 1218, Maputo

Mozambique Southern Centre for Energy and

Environment

Ministry of Mines and Energy P O Box CY 1074, Causeway,

P Bag 13297, Wndhoek Harare, Zimbabwe