Christopher ZeniosAfrica’s waste-to-energy project
Waste-to-energy is a form of biomass where garbage is collected and used as a feedstock to create electricity. Cape Town uses a waste-to-energy plant to reduce its garbage sites while helping to raise its use of green energy to a fifth of its electricity supply.
According to the Climate Neutral Group, “Municipal landfill sites are a danger to the environment and pose health hazards by producing huge quantities of methane gas”. Its projects will capture methane from 5 of these landfill sites in Johannesburg and convert it to electricity, in effect solving South Africa’s 2 biggest problems. This action will produce electricity that will power 16,500 homes in the country.
The current population of Africa is 1.2billion and 600million of those people lack access to electricity across the continent. This new project should boost the region’s economy by 10% per year. Africans will be demanding more energy whilst creating more garbage. The waste-to-energy project will help reform Africa and its economy, including other developing regions.
Waste-to-energy on a Global scale
Back in February 2019, Bill Gates expressed his thoughts at the African Unions annual summit and said that he was most passionate about…
The African people and clean energy but more importantly the need to bring electricity to a growing population in a climate-friendly way.
The Gates Foundation spends $2billion a year on the continent of Africa and these funds improve medical care and agribusinesses, which both improve the living standards in the country. Furthermore, it’s trying to give electricity to a continent of 500,000 with no access to power. This is the basis for enhancing their living standards.
The waste-to-energy along with other forms of help like the Gates Foundation could help the population to grow from 1.2billion to 2billion by 2050. According to the International Energy Agency, sub-Saharan Africa will require $400billion by 2035 to modernize its energy foundation and the World Bank Group will invest $200billion globally by 2025 to help with producing a low-carbon future.
Bill Gates referring to investments in healthcare and infrastructure says,
We need to do a much better job of informing people about the challenges, But I worry that wealthy countries are turning inward…they’ll decide these efforts aren’t worth the cost.
Gates Foundation and the United Nations with the launch of Sustainable Energy for All, are ready and willing to give all the help necessary to provide universal energy access by 2030. They will also use energy efficiency and renewable energy during this time.
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