From Reuters

Deep in the bowels of the giant Inga hydroelectric dam that straddles the mighty Congo river stands a fading map named “The motorways of electric power from Inga.”

From a dot in western Democratic Republic of Congo, lines extend across the African continent. They run southwards through Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and northwards via Sudan and Libya, reaching as far as Morocco.

For decades, governments dreamed of harnessing the Congo river’s enormous energy at the Inga rapids with an expansion of the dam large enough to power half of Africa. Years of conflict and misrule in Congo meant the project was never realized.

Instead, in the cavernous halls of Inga’s two dams, water drips from the ceiling and rusted pipes sit above puddles. Five of the 14 turbines no longer spin at all, a sign of the decay.

Now a deal with South Africa to buy electricity from Inga has revived talk of the giant hydro project that could illuminate a continent whose economies are rapidly expanding but lack the power supply to sustain it.

“We had to find a buyer for this energy. Otherwise we cannot build Inga,” Bruno Kapandji, Congo’s minister of energy and hydro power, told Reuters. “South Africa is a solvent and credible buyer.”

Following a year of talks, South Africa has promised to buy at least half the electricity from Inga III, a $12 billion dam that, once built, will produce 4,800 MW of energy. Much of the rest may go to Congo’s power-starved mining industry.

This is nearly three times the amount produced from Inga’s two existing dams, which are decades old and have been crippled by neglect, government debt and risk-averse investors.

Written by Pete Jones/Read more at Reuters.