Oil & Energy
Drought Dims Hydropower’s Promise
Hydropower is the world’s single largest source of green energy. On a global scale, hydropower plants produce more energy than all other renewable power sources combined.
However, the growth rate of new hydropower capacity has tapered off in recent years, and the sector is plagued by serious current and future problems, from increased incidents and intensity of droughts in a changing climate, and major negative environmental externalities associated with mega-dams.
Hydropower offers a critical benefit that other renewable energies don’t. It creates energy around the clock unlike solar and wind energy, which are dependent on weather patterns and therefore highly variable.
For this reason, hydropower is an extremely attractive option for river-endowed nations that want to boost their clean energy production levels without compromising grid stability or energy security. But in recent years, investment in expanded hydro has dropped off.
“In the last five years the average growth rate was less than one-third of what is required, signaling a need for significantly stronger efforts, especially to streamline permitting and ensure project sustainability”, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported last year.
It continued that “Hydropower plants should be recognised as a reliable backbone of the clean power systems of the future and supported accordingly”.
But in recent years hydropower has not proved to be as reliant as its investors had hoped. Widespread droughts associated with climate change have caused rivers to run lower or even dry up entirely, causing seriously negative (literal) downstream effects for hydropower production plants.
In 2022, intense droughts in China’s Yangtze River basin slashed developed hydropower potential (DHP) by 26%, causing critical shortages and spurring an uptick in coal-fired power production.
In the last few years similar problems have cropped up in Brazil, Ecuador, the United States, and the Mediterranean region, too.
Critically, these are not isolated or one-off incidents; the risk of similar extreme droughts in the future rises by nearly 90% in a number of climate change scenarios, notably SSP585.
“Since September, daily energy cuts have lasted as long as 14 hours”, the New York Times recently reported from Quito, Ecuador.
“Highways have turned an inky black; entire neighborhoods have lost running water, even internet and cell service”, it added.
Not only does this have enormous implications for day-to-day life, these blackouts reverberate through the national economy. It is estimated that for every hour of blackout, Ecuador loses $12 million in productivity and sales.
Climate scenarios are just one of the factors deterring investors away from new hydropower mega-projects.
In the United States, investments in large hydropower plants all but drief up due to the simple fact that “there are no suitable river locations in the US for new ones”, according to recent reporting from CleanTechnica.
And the ones that do exist are associated with major ecological disruptions, changing flood patterns and blocking salmon runs for tens of millions of fish, among other environmental issues.
“There are certainly rivers in other countries which could be tapped using conventional hydropower technology, but not in the US”, Frederick Hasler wrote for CleanTechnica.
“Going forward, current US hydro needs to be maintained, but cannot be significantly increased”, he said.
And there are indeed major projects being planned in the rivers of other countries, but these are not without their own problems.
In the Congo, plans for the world’s largest hydropower project have been stalled for years after much enthusiasm at the outset. Some blame the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s poor governance for the Grand Inga dam’s failure to launch, while others point to a revolving door of international partners, a blisteringly high up-front cost of around $80 billion in one of the world’s poorest nations, and “deep concerns about the project’s environmental and social impact” according to reporting from the BBC.
But the need for the Grand Inga is enormous and impossible to ignore. Around 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to power completely, making electrification a critical step for economic and social development in the region.
But Africa does not have the luxury of emitting greenhouse gases indiscriminately as the developed world has done over the past 150 years.
Instead, the continent is under enormous international pressure to “leapfrog” over fossil fuels and straight to the development of clean energy systems.
It’s hard to imagine how this will be possible without large-scale hydropower.
By: Haley Zaremba
The Federal Government and key Petroleum Products marketers have proposed new measures to help curb rising cases of road accidents involving petrol tankers.
This followed recent incidents of road accidents resulting in cremation of hundreds of lives and causing extensive damage to properties.
Speaking at the Discourse organised by Mejor Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) in Lagos, Thursday, with the theme “Improving Safe Transportation of Petroleum Products”, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, noted with dismay the number of casualties the country recorded recently due to tanker accidents.
Lokpobiri stressed the need for an enhanced training for tanker drivers, installation of detection leak devices as well as other safety systems that can assist drivers.
He called on Marketers and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to strengthen collaboration with stakeholders, especially in the training of tanker drivers.
On his part, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpo Ekpo, reaffirmed government’s commitment to providing enabling environment to ensure safety of petroleum products transportation.
Ekpo, who was represented by Engr. Abel, said consideration should be given to more safety means of transporting products like the pipelines and railway line.
He stressed the need for better training for drivers and implementation of safety regulations within the industry.
Earlier, Chairman, MEMAN, Huub Stokman, said the Association has elaborate training manual for members truck drivers.
Stokman insisted that more training programmes and consistent adherence to safety measures would help to curb road accidents involving tanker drivers.
Also speaking, the National President, Nigerian Association of Raod Transport Owners (NARTO), Yusuf Lawal Othman, called for support.
The Chairman, National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), Prof. Mohammed Ibrahim, has said that the production of coal bed methane, an unconventional form of natural gas extracted from coal, is set to begin in Benue State.
Prof. Ibrahim staed this while addressing newsmen at the end of a joint meeting of the National and State gas expansion committees with Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia.
He said the Federal Government is committed to expanding gas availability in Nigeria for domestic use and mobility.
Ibrahim added that extracting gas from unconventional coal sources rather than traditional hydrocarbon reserves is a way to boost gas availability.
“Essentially there are four areas of implementation that the committee has identified. One is to pioneer the production of gas from what you call coal bed methane, which means that Benue is going to pioneer in the country the production of gas not from conventional hydrocarbon, but from non-conventional coal just so that the nation will have an alternative source to gas availability”, he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Benue State Gas Expansion Programme, Dr. Emmanuel Chenge, said the gas expansion initiative would contribute to the economic transformation of Benue State.
“The good news is that Benue is set to join the league of gas-producing states and if we are conversant with what being a member of the gas-producing state is, it shows that Benue State will start getting derivatives from that sector of the economy”, Dr Chenge stated.
The National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) was established to boost the exploration and utilisation of gas in Nigeria and make Nigeria a gas-based industrial nation by increasing the use of gas for transportation, cooking, and industrialization.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has said there was no explosion at the newly refurbished Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).
NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, made this known in a statement issued on Friday night.
Soneye said reports claiming that there was an explosion at the Warri refinery were false and should be ignored and disregarded by the public.
According to him, the refinery was undergoing routine maintenance.
His statement read, “NNPC Ltd. wishes to clarify that there was no explosion at the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC). Any reports suggesting otherwise are completely false.
“On January 25, 2025, operations at WRPC Area 1 were intentionally curtailed to carry out necessary intervention works on select equipment, including field instruments that were impacting sustainable and steady operations.
“These intervention works are essential to ensure the production of on-specification finished and intermediate products, particularly Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Kerosene (Kero).
“The routine maintenance is progressing as planned, and Area 1 will be back in operation within the next few days.
“Despite ongoing interventions, over the past 11 days, AGO loading has been maintained at an average of eight trucks per day, with a sufficient supply available to sustain ongoing truck load-out operations”.
Soneye added that the NNPCL was committed to ensuring an uninterrupted supply of petroleum products from the refinery.
He said the company “appreciates the patience and cooperation of all stakeholders as it completes these essential maintenance activities”.
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