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>>Faith: Commonly referred to as the land of a thousand hills , Rwanda is a small, landlocked
country located in East Africa.
It is the most densely populated country in Africa with 416 people per square kilometer.
Although Rwanda’s densely distributed population should facilitate network expansion and access
to electricity, presently
only 15% of Rwanda’s households are connected to the grid with 42% of the electricity being
produced from diesel generators.
There is therefore an urgent need for the development of alternative renewable sources
of energy.
Our partners include the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda, the Ministry of Infrastructure
in Rwanda, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Agency (NOAA)
and the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) as well as the World Bank Open Data Initiative, and
the AfriPop Project.
The Earth observing satellites utilized in this study include: Suomi NPPVIIRS night light
data used in creating population
density estimates, Terra and Landsat 7 satellites used in land cover and elevation analysis.
NASA Surface Meteorology and
Solar Energy (SSE) datasets for wind speed data, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
(TRMM) where rainfall and precipitation
data were derived.
In order to determine suitable sites for renewable energy production, a wind and hydro analysis
was performed.
>>Dieudonne: For the hydro analysis, in order to identify locations where hydropower plants
can be built, the equation of the
hydroelectric potential of a stream was utilized.
The amount of water from surface runoff accumulated at each point was derived using rainfall data
from TRMM, land cover data,
surface runoff coefficients,as well as watershed area at each point. Finally, each of the consequent
calculations was used in
the equation to derive the hydroelectric power of a stream.
The subsequent results were identified and displayed in a map using ArcGIS.
Based on the results, possible locations of power plants are concentrated in high altitude
areas where there is high
elevation drop for small streams and on major rivers where a greater amount of water can
be accumulated.
Small streams in the Western part of the country have a greater potential for micro power plants
with capacities ranging from
100kW to 1MW.
On the other hand, major rivers such as Nyabarongo, Rusizi and Akagera have potential for larger
power plants that can
produce up to 25MW.
>>Gaspard: For the wind analysis, 1 degree wind speed data was obtained from NASA SSE.The
data was then processed and combined with
elevation, slope, land cover and proximity to existing transmission lines using ArcGIS
and a Python script to determine areas
that are most suitable for wind energy production.
Our study shows that Rwanda has generally low wind speeds that are not ideal for commercial
wind energy production.
However, studies show that there is a possibility of small scale wind energy production.
In addition to investigating the site suitability and feasibility of hydro and wind energy production
in Rwanda,
this project also aimed at assessing the benefits of green energy resources in the country.
This was carried out by using demographic and economic data to hypothesize how future
solar and other renewable energy
facilities may affect settlements in Rwanda.
It can therefore be concluded that, with exploitation of the available energy sources, Rwanda’s
energy problem can be better
addressed.