The Prospects for Electricity Generation from Biomass in African Countries
Abstract
One of the biggest challenges facing developing countries is their energy sector. Electricity shortages are becoming increasingly worrying in some of these countries, partly due to over-reliance on fossil fuels that cannot reliably meet their energy needs. These fuels are considered environmentally harmful, causing environmental damage through greenhouse gas emissions. It is high time these countries focused their efforts on clean and renewable energy sources, such as biomass energy. Africa has sufficient reserves of residual biomass but has not made any progress in developing renewable energy sources. These could have been of paramount importance for the country's economic growth and alleviated the problem of intermittent energy supply. This study examines the situation in Africa regarding plant biomass production and some of the measures taken so far to efficiently utilize biomass for energy generation, using Nigeria as a case study.
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