Old Inga Dam DRC. Image credit internationalrivers.org

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Natural Resources: Energy:Energy resources of Africa

  • Electricity is generated from two major processes, thermal and hydro.
  • The thermal component includes petroleum on top of coal for a number of countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Libya.
  • For other countries the dominance of HEP is attributed to the presence of large rivers and suitable sites where to build the HEP schemes.
  • Generally, Africa is endowed with large rivers such as the Congo, the Nile, The Niger and the Zambezi.
  • These rivers have a very large potential to produce HEP but this has not been realized because of the low demand of energy on the continent.
  • The low levels of industrialization and urbanization and low levels of economic performance and general poverty by governments and rural people (shortage of capital) have also contributed.
  • The north relies mainly on oil and natural gas as major sources of thermal energy because of their availability.
  • The South uses coal also because of its geological availability.

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