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Cameroon pushes ahead with 420 MW hydroelectric project
10/1/2024
8 min read
Feature
Cameroon already depends on electricity from renewable sources, mainly hydro schemes. The country is soon to open a new hydroelectric project to help end chronic power supply interruptions to its capital city. Roland Mbonteh, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and Keith Nuthall report.
In most urbanised industrialised economies, the current focus on renewable energy growth is on wind and solar. Lacking untapped river resources, major hydroelectric projects are rare. However, in larger and more rural countries, especially those still industrialising, large-scale hydro is still an option. Cameroon, which is finalising construction of a new 420 MW project by damming the Sanaga River, the Central African country’s largest watercourse, 70 km north-east of the capital Yaoundé, is a case in point.
Its new Nachtigal hydroelectric dam will be 1,455 km long, with turbines being fuelled by a 3.3 km headrace channel, according to France’s EDF, which owns 40% of Cameroonian operator the Nachtigal Hydro Power Company (NHPC). ‘Nachtigal will be the most powerful electricity generating facility in Cameroon when it is commissioned,’ says EDF, a major fillip for the country’s power production, which the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates currently amounts to 1.5 GW.
Once this $1.3bn project is fully operational next year, it will also shift Cameroon’s power generation profile towards green energy, with renewables (98% of which is hydro) currently delivering 54% of the country’s electricity capacity, the rest depending on fossil fuels, according to IRENA.