Developing renewable energy which can replace the fossil fuel has become a major task for all countries. Efforts to find renewable energy are gaining momentum due to high price of crude oil, which has remained high from the early 2000s, and is expected to rise even higher. In addition, the environmental issue is becoming a truly global issue, meaning questions concerning development of green energy have now taken center stage.
The bioenergy is drawing attention as an alternative source of renewable energy source; there are also solar and wind power, which can replace crude oil. Solar power is especially important in Sub-Saharan Africa as the next-generation energy source.
The attention being paid to development of bioenergy is due to its potential to resolve the shortage of electricity in Africa. Africa suffers from a severe energy shortage - the ‘darkest’ continent where half the entire population of the continent does not have access to the electricity. The lack of electric power in Africa, in turn, worsens poverty because it hampers not only the operation of industry but also social welfare apparatuses in public health and education. Although there were many attempts to expand the power supply by constructing new power plants, it is a problem without short-term solutions. But if the sources of energy are diversified, it would reduce Africa’s reliance on fossil fuel.
Bioenergy also happens to be the most efficient form of renewable energy for Africa’s rural areas, where the 70 percent of the continent’s population live. As it would be impossible to build a power grid for rural areas, which has poor infrastructure and low population density, bioenergy that can generate power for use at the local level has come into the spotlight.
Another significance of bioenergy development is found with aspect to the environment and public health sector. The power situation in Africa is poor: 550million Africans depends on the traditional energy sources such as wood, leading to destruction of forests. Even oil-producing countries in Africa are heavily dependent on biomass energy. Such destruction of forests cause serious damage to African rural economies still dependent on gathering and collection. Many women and children suffer from respiratory disease caused by air pollution, the most serious consequence of overuse of biomass energy.
Other than diversification of energy and protection of the environment, bioenergy development can increase income in rural Africa. Bioenergy uses energy sources already existing in rural areas, and thus can create work through production, transportation, trade and processing. In Brazil, production and consumption of bioenergy in the form of bio-ethanol and bio-diesel; has reduced fossil fuel dependence, created jobs, and increased income.
Abundant farmland and labor force gives Africa great potential for developing bioenergy. By 2050, Africa will cultivate more than 40percent of bioenergy crops of the world according to the OECD report.
However, there are many obstacles to developing bioenergy in Africa. Though African countries including South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique give increasing attention to the bioenergy industry, it is hard to find strategic and long-term plans at the governmental level in most African countries. It should be noted that Brazil's success was backed up by strategic government policy for the bioenergy industry.
There is also the issue of poor infrastructure, which hinders economic growth in Africa. Case in point, poor road conditions disrupts travel, as well as increasing the logistics costs. This makes exports of bioenergy difficult, not to mention making bioenergy less than profitable. Poor infrastructure may be a problem common to developing regions, but Africa’s infrastructure situation is especially acute. Two examples highlight this point: ① Transporting a car from Japan to Cote d'Ivoire costs 1,500 dollars, but transporting a car from Cote d'Ivorie to Ethiopia costs more than 5,000 dollars, ② Transporting coconut oil from Indonesia to Mombasa, Kenya, costs 40 dollars per ton; but coconut oil being shipped from Mombasa to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, costs 100 dollars per ton. In the second case, the product travels 1/6 the distance, but costs twice as much. The transportation cost alone takes up 3/4 of the price for export goods shipped from a landlocked country to the coast, with shortage of ports adding to the difficulty in exporting. This reality of poor African infrastructure means that African export goods are critically handicapped in terms of price competitiveness.
As for Korea, given its expensive farmland as well as expensive labor, it is important to obtain bioenergy crops at low prices from overseas, but it must take into consideration the local situation and distribution problems in Africa.
It is also necessary to emphasize development of bioenergy with respect to Korea’s ODA. Bioenergy-related businesses should first build a system of cooperation when it enters Africa. Collaboration in rural Africa in terms of IT is made difficult by the shortage of power supply, which poses formidable obstacles to operating a telecommunication base station there; but collaboration on Bioenergy development can actually help solve the problem. For instance, foreign telecommunication industries, GSMA (GSM Association), MTN and Ericson, use bio fuel - palm oil and jatropha - which are locally farmed, to supply electricity for their base stations.
The downside of African bioenergy development is shortage of food produced by the farms. Bioenergy development should take the place without hurting food crop cultivation. But 1st generation bioenergy, bioenergy from food crops, will only achieve limited usage due to the food security problem; thus leading to the growth of 2nd generation bioenergy, non-food crop bioenergy, which is expanding in importance. Jatropha is a non-food crop which can be found in tropical regions, growing well in seemingly inhospitable wastelands. This plant, which can be grown on a massive scale, contains much oil which is suitable as a source of bio-diesel. Extraction is not difficult, as jatropha oil can be squeezed out easily using a simple machine, so the production boom is expected to occur in farms around Africa. The concerns over development of bioenergy reducing farmlands in Africa can be laid to rest when the vast, open fields of Africa accommodate this new source of biofuel.