Improving Affordability and Reliability of Energy Access in Uganda with River Turbines

**Improving Affordability and Reliability of Energy Access in Uganda with River Turbines**

This study will show how novel hydro-kinetic river turbines can be a valuable addition to the portfolio of solutions that can be used to accelerate energy access and improve the quality of life for poor, rural communities in Uganda.

The emergence of small, efficient, free-stream, hydro-kinetic turbines capable of economically generating electricity from the speed of fast-flowing water is a new development. It uses technology transferred from the offshore tidal energy sector, in which the UK has been a world-leader since it began, about twenty years ago. Hydro-kinetic technology is fundamentally different to conventional hydropower that extracts energy from rivers as they drop through a height, or 'head'. Conventional hydropower is cost effective and reliable at a large scale supplying power to national grids. But these enormous projects often fail to connect poor communities who are either 'beyond', or 'beneath' the grid. Hydro-kinetic turbines that are easily deployed without civil engineering works can offer affordable, reliable power to those who might otherwise be left behind.

The consortium who will deliver this feasibility study brings together Kinetic Hydro, a UK SME developing the turbine technology, Practical Action, a charity with over thirty years' experience working in Sub Saharan Africa, the Challenges Group, a business development agency supporting social enterprises, and the University of Leicester, who have an established capability in assessing hydropower potential using satellite data.

Uganda will be used as a case study to assess the feasibility of hydro-kinetic river turbines contributing to the acceleration of energy access provision. The country has opportunities and barriers to success that will be representative of (but not the same as) others in sub-Saharan Africa. It has low, but accelerating access to electricity, a poor and widely dispersed rural population, and a network of rivers suited to hydro-kinetic turbines. Women and marginalised groups in rural areas have disproportionately poorer energy access, as well as limited control over productive resources. Basic tasks such as collecting water, fuel and fodder consume many hours a day. Energy access can be transformative if it can used to free up time spent on chores so that it can be used for income generating activities. This project will therefore research how to deliver sustainable and impactful development projects based on hydro-kinetic turbines for the children, women and men living in Ugandan communities near to suitable rivers.