EU and Belgium implement program to kickstart bioenergy companies in West and Central Africa

Rising fossil fuel prices are truly catastrophic for developing countries, especially for the poor segments of society. They drain states' treasuries, which forces them to cut back on public spending (often, social services, health and education are the first victims). High energy prices also have immediate impacts on all sectors of the economy, especially in energy intensive developing countries. Oil importing African countries spend between 10 to 15 percent of their GDP on imported energy (compare this to the 2 to 3% for OECD countries). On a micro-economic level, high energy prices are a burden on the weakest, because they spend most of their budgets on this most basic of goods. Small businesses and farmers find it more difficult to operate and to bring their produce to market (earlier post).

Bioenergy offers an obvious opportunity to break this disastrous dependency on fossil fuels, and to transit to more efficient energy systems based on local resources. For this reason, the European Commission and the COOPENER (Cooperation on Energy) program, part of the EU's Energy Initiative in developing countries, and Wallonia's development agency have partnered [*French] to launch a bioenergy facilitation program for small and medium enterprises (SME's) in West and Central Africa aimed at boosting energy security, sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Senegal and Cameroon will be the first beneficiaries. The projects' local partners are ENDA Tiers-Monde and ERA-Cameroun (Environnement, Recherche, Action au Cameroun).

The agencies recently presented the third stage of the €905,000 ($1.3 million) project titled 'Removal of non-technological barriers to encourage SME energy efficiency by the rational use of biomass' (ENEFIBIO), in Thiès (Senegal), where they explained that the goal is to create an infrastructure to facilitate the establishment of small and medium-scale bioenergy companies who will produce electricity from biomass, as well as rationalising energy use at existing SME's by transiting to efficient bioenergy systems. A first meeting dealt with the ways in which SME's can overcome administrative barriers to implement the projects, whereas a second gathering concluded accords with national energy companies (Senelec, AES-Sonel).

Currently a session is underway at the Forestry Center in Thiès to train twenty experts - ten Senegalese, nine Cameroonians and one Beninese - who will become the projects' directors. They are financial and administrative experts whose competences will be strengthened so that they can help establish the bioenergy entrepreneurs' businesses. The experts will accompany them along the entire project cycle, support them with finance, management and negotiations with third parties.

According to Belgium's Romain Crehay (engineering department of Wallonia's Development Agency), the goals of the project are to strengthen existing local capabilities in relation to the use of sustainable energy for poverty alleviation (helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals) in developing countries. It addresses sustainable energy services as a cross-cutting issue, providing power to supply the most urgent development needs such as access to food, clean water, health services, and education through new and more appropriate approaches. It aims to help West and Central Africa to move away from fossil fuels, especially petroleum products, used by many businesses and small utilities, and to rationalise biomass use.

Stated objectives for the facilitation component of the project are:

• the stimulation of a dialogue between policy makers and SME entrepreneurs to improve the administrative and regulatory framework
• the training of project developers to conduct pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and on project development methodology
• the development of tools to assist project developers
• the development of information tools to advise SME entrepreneurs on the potential of energy improvement in their companies with adapted bioenergy technologies
• the setting up of an information service for the SME entrepreneurs

Feedstocks for the bioenergy companies and SME's will consist of agricultural and forestry residues, which are currently not exploited in any efficient way. By utilizing the resource in modern, efficient biomass power plants, businesses and regions can 'leapfrog' into a new era of locally generated, affordable, clean and secure energy. In Senegal, abundant residues are found in the cotton and rice sectors, whereas in Central Africa, residues from the forestry and palm oil sectors will provide the feedstock:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: climate change :: energy security :: electricity :: rural development :: poverty alleviation :: Senegal :: Cameroon ::

Secou Sarr, coordinator of Energy, Environment and Development at ENDA Tiers-Monde explains that biomass resources are abundantly present in the regions where the projects will be implemented. Biomass is used there in the traditional way: on open fires. This is extremely inefficient (around 90% of the energy is lost when biomass is burned on an open fire) and causes health problems due to indoor smoke pollution (note: according to the World Health Organisation, this 'killer in the kitchen' ranks amongst the top ten of most lethal afflictions in developing countries, claiming around 2 million women and childrens' lives each year - earlier post). Likewise, SME's use both fossil and biomass resources in highly inefficient ways.

Sarr says this type of 'primitive' biomass burning makes up 90% of the energy consumption by West and Central Africa's populations and SME's. Hence, there is tremendous scope for efficiency improvements. Moreover, modern biomass power plants not only produce heat (or cold), but generate electricity - a very scarce resource across Africa.

According to Sarr, besides the general population, small enterprises and businesses cannot do without electricity; it is a prerequisite for development. The biomass projects will for the first time bring this good in a decentralised, medium scale manner.

Finally, the utilization of biomass in efficient power plants as a substitute for fossil fuels - coal and petroleum products (widely used in diesel generators; heavier oils are also used for power generation) - contributes significantly to a reduction in greenhouse gases. Even though West and Central African economies are poor, developing countries, they too can and should be contributing to fighting climate change.

COOPENER is the external component of the Directorate-General for Transport and Energy's 'Intelligent Energy - Europe programme 2003-2006'. COOPENER addresses the role of sustainable energy for poverty alleviation in developing countries. It was launched in 2003 in the framework of the EU Energy Initiative, with a budget of €17 million.

COOPENER supported activities have been operating since early 2005 with three rounds of calls, resulting in 40 signed projects in sub-Sahara Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Wallonia's efforts in development assistance are focused on the three Central African countries (the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Translated for Biopact by Jonas Van Den Berg

References:
ENEFIBIO project website.

Walf Fadjri: Projet bioénergie : Une alternative au pétrole comme source d’énergie - s.d. [October 2007].

European Commission: EU Energy Initiative - COOPENER.

COOPENER: Energy Services for Poverty Alleviation in Developing Countries: 24 projects for sustainable energy services in Sub-Saharan Africa - February 2007.

Wallonian Government: Relations internationales - Les relations avec les pays en développement.

ENDA Tiers-Monde: Environnement et Développement du Tiers Monde.