In what is seen as a good move for renewable energy, talks in the French capital, Paris, between the Democratic Republic of Congo and international officials have agreed work on the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam will start in October 2015 in the DR Congo.
The meeting on the proposed Inga dam on the Congo River also involved multilateral lending institutions.
A statement after the talks concluded said the “foundation stone will be laid in October 2015.”
“With a production of 40,000 megawatts (MW), the Grand Inga project will eventually provide electricity to half the African continent,” it said.
This is less than half of the DR Congo’s total hydropower resources, which the World Bank estimates at 100,000MW.
World Bank estimates suggest that if completed and running at full capacity, the complex could provide energy to up to 500 million African households.
The first phase of the project, Inga Three Basse Chute, will have a capacity of 4800MW.
The Paris meeting followed a deal signed on May 7 between South Africa and DR Congo for co-operation in the energy sector and for South Africa to buy some of the electricity produced.
Plants would need to be rehabilitated and massive new stations built on the powerful Inga falls, which lie in a narrow strip of DR Congo territory through which the Congo River runs down to the Atlantic coast.
Three consortiums are bidding to clinch the contract for the project: China’s Sinohydro and Three Gorges Corporation; Spain’s Actividades de Construccion y Servicios (ACS), Eurofinsa and AEE; and South Korean firms Daewoo and Posco with SNC Lavalin of Canada.
The Three Gorges Dam in China is currently the world’s largest hydropower complex, with a capacity of 22,500MW.
