Large hydo-fueled grid schemes for Africa: a recipe for disaster?

This work discusses the numerous grand schemes are being planned today to crisscross Africa with electricity grids. Many of these plans rely heavily on new large hydropower projects. NEPAD, the Nile basin initiative and the southern African power pool all propose many new large dams, while including in their plans only modest investments in more sustainable energy supply or efficiency measures. At a time when global warming threatens to make Africa´s rivers even less reliable for economically feasible large hydro projects, and their waters more precious for other uses, the energy industry and governments should be looking to increase Africa´s reliance on less risky forms of energy supply. This work will use the Nile Basin as a case study to discuss the problems with grid schemes that rely heavily on large hydro, and the reasons that good energy planning is imperative for Africa.