New strategies for harvesting large scale bulk energy from the Congo river without a conventional dam

The paper provides a summary of the investigations into the capability of the river to support an evolutionary design approach as based on the run of river, low head, hydro-electric generation technology as employed at the existing Inga 2 power station in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The evolutionary approach builds upon the existing infrastructure. The results show that the footprint is much smaller. The environmental impact is minimized. These collectively will contribute to lower capital costs. In summary, 10 000 cm³/sec of constant river flow will produce 5000 MW of base power. On average, the constant recorded flow of the river is 30 000 cm³/sec and a total of 15 000 MW of base power generation is possible.