Bujagali Hydropower Project
Clean energy from hydropower
Jinja, UGANDA*
The Bujagali power plant is a hydroelectric power plant above the Victoria Nile for power generation at the Bujagali waterfall in Uganda. Construction began in 2007 and ended in 2012. The hydroelectric power plant was officially inaugurated on October 8, 2012. The power of the station is 250 megawatts (340,000 hp). The power plant is one of the most powerful hydropower plants in Uganda.
In all hydroelectric power plants, the water is kept at a high potential level in the storage room by a dam (also called retaining wall or barrage).
The kinetic energy of the effluent water is transferred to a water turbine or a water wheel, which drives an electric generator directly or via a transmission, which converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy. A substation is also connected to many hydroelectric power plants for supply to a medium or high voltage grid.
Hydropower is therefore one of the renewable forms of energy, as carbon is not released in direct operation (compared to thermal power plants that use fossil fuels).
*uganda
Great goals, difficult implementation
According to WHO, 663 million people in Africa, Asia and South America have no access or only insufficient access to clean drinking water. Therefore, drinking water in plastic bottles is not only an alternative to unsafe water supply for many people, but the only way out.
Uganda is one of the centers where drinking water for the African region is bottled in PET-bottles. Indeed, this situation causes a great waste problem. However, these water bottles are imperative for many people to survive.
In 2012 already, Uganda has made an important decision regarding the climate protection: a law prohibiting plastic bags was passed. The judges decided that plastic bags „violate the rights of people to a clean and healthy environment”.
The Ugandan climate policy has set itself ambitious goals which are very difficult to implement due to various problems that are located at different levels. In 2007, the NAPA was adopted. The National Adaptation Programme of Action and different programs of action include strategies of adaptation to climate change.
Countries such as Uganda are among the most vulnerable to climate change without belonging to the main polluters. Uganda and all African countries are dependent on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the industrialized countries, the compensation for the financing of adaptation measures and transfer of technology in the country.
