technology for producing electricity, drinking water and heat launched

The market leader in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries, inaugurated the MiCROSOL project aims to develop a single, modular standard technology for producing electricity, drinking water and heat simultaneously, primarily to benefit micro-industries located in rural areas of countries with high levels of sunshine, especially in Africa.

MiCROSOL is based on the principle of co-generation of electricity and heat, applying a new approach to a technology that is already widespread – solar thermodynamics. The solution focuses its constraints on the design of thermal storage that only uses environmentally-friendly products.

 Its purpose is to simultaneously meet three basic needs regularly expressed by these people: Access to electricity that is reliable, efficient and inexpensive; Clean drinking water that is produced economically and consistently; and Heat generation that is continuous and environmentally sound.

 Microsol can help micro-producers in the food, textile and paper industries with processing their raw materials by automating some of their processes (e.g. drying, washing, pasteurization, etc.). In the tertiary sector, Microsol can help the tourist industry by providing the energy needed for many premium services: electricity for HVAC, refrigeration or security; heat for hot water, laundry or heating; water for drinking or cooking.

Located in a rural village, Microsol can also meet some or all of the production needs of local residents: water supply, electrification of communal areas, and so forth.

A Microsol solution produces 50 MWh/year of electricit, 1,000 m3/year of drinking water, and around 800 MWh/year of thermal energy. The solution has an expected life of at least 20 years.

"That technology can help Africa's poorest countries", said Pradeep Monga, Director of the Energy & Climate Change Branch of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), while attending the inauguration of Microsol solution.

For the environment, Microsol is a green solution that guarantees zero greenhouse gas emissions, reduced deforestation and health problems owing to the clean production of heat and electricity. Also, Microsol use easily recyclable steel and aluminum components.

Gilles Vermot Desroches, Senior Vice-President, Sustainability, Schneider Electric, announced: “All countries with high levels of sunshine are potential targets for marketing Microsol. However, because of its infrastructure needs, geographical location and economic models, Schneider Electric and its partners decided to focus their efforts on Africa".

After market research, the consortium led by Schneider Electric chose Kenya as pilot country for the industrialization and commercialization of Microsol. Kenya meets a set of favorable conditions for the establishment and development of this solution.

The consortium plans to start the commercialization phase in 2015.

NSSF unveils New real estate investment

The National Social Security Fund has unveiled the $ 400M investment project in housing and multipurpose developments in Lubowa. The project is expected to activate the fund’s property that has been redundant especially land. The housing project is also probable to boost the fund’s performance and expected to increase the members’ interest gains to 20% upon completion.

The real estate project is the first one of it’s kind that the National Social Security Fund is under-taking. It is aimed at offsetting utilization of the fund’s available land for profit and interest fetching investments to increase performance in real estate.

The 565 acres of land in Lubowa was bought ten years back in 2003 at 50 million shillings per acre. The land will therefore be developed into a housing estate under the theme live, work and play. The land which is currently under cultivation will be developed into a self-sustaining and multi-purpose area. It will have 2741 housing units of different types, service centers, public space and security among others.

The project was initiated in 2012 with the procurement processes by SBI international holdings the design consultants. The real project will begin in January 2014 with a selection of contractors which will be open for competition. The first phase will involve construction of 360 houses, rental facilities, initial infrastructure, schooling facilities and security services. When finished, the initial investments will be offset to sustain further contractions in later phases.              

According to Richard Byarugaba the fund managing director, the project will transform lives in terms of services and employment. The fund contributors will have priority in acquisition of property upon completion of estate development.

The project is expected to be mixed given the diversity of developments that range from schools, residential, commercial and recreation centers. It is projected that if well developed the project will fetch the fund an interest return of approximately 20%.

Uganda makes progress in extractive industry management

Now that Uganda has moved to the development stage of oil and gas life span besides several artisan mineral activities, it is important that management frameworks are adopted to ensure effective value is attained from the resources. The extractive resources are often a blessing with expertise and good management from the host country but it’s likely to turn into a curse with lack of accountability and transparency.

Government has therefore launched the country energy Frame work Program for nuclear energy a reference for the medium-term planning of technical cooperation that identifies priority areas where the transfer of nuclear technology and technical cooperation resources will be directed to support national development goals.  According to Uganda’s’ prime minister Patrick Ammama Mbabazi, the frame work comes at a time when Uganda has discovered vast   deposits of minerals, gas and oil, Uranium as well.

The minister of energy and Mineral Development Engineer Irene Munloni says plans are complete to come up with a national oil company that acts as the agency in the extractive resource negotiations and deals on behalf of the people. Oil companies are the negotiating camps for the extractive resource countries with international oil companies. Upon incorporation, Uganda will have its extractive resource deals clearly streamlined to guide accountability and transparency.

The Prime Minister amama mbabazi has identified land acquisition as one of the major huddles frustrating development of the extractive industry. Compensations of those that own the land under which the extractive resources lie is too fragile that agreements are always abused by the land owners and the extractive resource contractors. It is therefore important to come up with clear regulations to determine the manner in which land owners and extractive resource contractors share the resource profits. This has derails efforts to develop the necessary infrastructure to support the extractive industry development.

Uganda like several other countries in Africa has discovered oil, gas  and several other minerals amidst lack of expertise and supportive infrastructural development. It is therefore important for Uganda to derive lessons from other countries where the extractive resources have been developed for long. This is to guide the resource life span with limited negative effects that are often associated with resource rich countries.