i

DECLARATION

I the undersigned hereby affirm that this thesis is the product of my own work without any unlawful

assistance of someone else. This research work was supervised by Prof. Jens Bo Holm-Nielsen of the

Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, and Dr. Angela Münch, of Department of

Environmental and Business Economics- Syddansk Universitet – Esbjerg.

All the materials and literature used have been referenced and no part of this thesis has been previously

presented to another examination committee in this university or elsewhere.

Mbi Jonathan Nkwa .................................. ...............................

(Candidate) Signature Date

ii

Acknowledgement

First all of all my profound gratitude goes to my both supervisors, Prof. Jens Bo Holm-Nielsen and Dr

Angela Münch, without whose cooperation and motivation this work would have been abortive. Many

thanks also to my lecturers both at Syddansk Universitet (SDU) and Aalborg University- Esbjerg, among

whom are: Prof. Niels Vestergaard, Lone Kronbak, Villy Søgaard, Erik Søgaard Sergey V. Kucheryavskiy ,

Birgit Storm among others for their academic instruction. Furthermore I also appreciate Robert Adu,

Mensah Bernard and Ehiaze Augustine Ehimen who have contributed immensely to make this thesis a

reality.

To say the least million thanks, goes to Ellen M. Andersen for her cooperation, guidance and advice

during my entire stay here at SDU.

Many Thanks,

Jonathan.

.

iii

Abstract

Cameroon is blessed with abundant naturally occurring sources of energy. In fact the country's

energy mix shows that as much as 76 percent of its electricity production is from hydropower, a form of

renewable energy. Unfortunately, the country has lacked behind in exploiting other sources of

renewable energy that are available, such as biomass and solar energy.

This work shows that excluding hydro, Cameroon is rich in other sources of renewable energy that can

be tapped to avoid the use of fossil fuel and also the over-dependence on traditional biomass (woodfuel

and charcoal)

It has been shown that the average solar radiation for most parts of the country is above 4, with the

northern part of the country having an average of above 5 kWh per metre square per day. This very

good parameter assures the country of energy security if properly planned and tapped.

Bioenergy is another area that the country has very promising potentials. For now, there has been an

over-dependence on traditional biomass for energy needs in both the rural and urban areas, with

traditional biomass taking up as much as over 70% of the country's energy mix. This situation has speed

up the rate of the depletion of the rain forest and could lead to the destruction of more than a third of

the rainforest in Cameroon by the mid of the century if adequate steps are not taken to the reverse the

trend.

This thesis assesses solar and biofuel potential of Cameroon with focus on how small scale solar and

bioenergy technology could help alleviate the county’s rural poverty in a sustainable manner. As much

as 60% of land fertile for agricultural production is at the moment not being utilized. With proper

planning, part of this can be used for fuel crop production, in a manner that will not jeopardize food

crop production.

This paper also looked at the benefits and challenges of solar and bioenergy in Cameroon and also

proffers some recommendations to the challenges.

iv

List of Tables

Table 2-1: Breakdown of the energy requirement for a multicrystalline silicon PV module using

present- day production technology.......................................................................12

Table 3-1: Cameroon hydropower plants ....................................................................................20

Table 3-2: Cameroon hydroelectric potential...............................................................................27

Table 3-3: Estimated production of biomass with economically recoverable energy for main crop

production in Cameroon ............................................................. ............................33

Table 4-1: taxonomy of suitable regions and feedstock production of potential biofuel in

Cameroon....................................................................................................................38

Table 4-2: Breakdown of the cost of a double reflector hot box solar cooker with TIM..............46

Table 4-3: Available biogas substrates in Cameroon....................................................................49

Table 5-1: GHG emission rate in Cameroon.................................................................................64

v

List of figures

Figure 3-1: Physical Map of Cameroon……………………………………………………………………………………18

Figure 3-2: Cameroon electricity statistics ………………………………………………………………………………20

Figure 3-3: Estimated energy consumption of Cameroon ………………………………………………………..21

Figure 3-4: Annual average solar radiation of 2009 and 2010 in Cameroon……………………………..29

Figure 3-5: The earth at night ………………………………………………………………………………………………….30

Figure 3-6: Solar mapping in the ten regions of Cameroon………………………………………………………31

Figure 3-7: Sources of energy use in Cameroon………………………………….……………………………………32

Figure 3-8: Vegetation mapping of Cameroon………………………………………………………………………….35

Figure 4-1: A participatory framework for small scale solar PV for electricity generation in rural

Cameroon……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..39

Figure 4-2: Construction of cooKit by rural women …………………………………………………………………42

Figure 4-3: A complete cooKit…………………………………………………………………………………………………43

Figure 4-4: Double reflector hotbox solar cooker with TIM………………………………………………………44

Figure 4-5: Seesaw solar dryer…………………………………………………………………………………………………46

Figure 4-6: ICS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….48

Figure 4-7: Fixed-dome digester ………………………………………………………………………………………………51

Figure 4-8: Final layer of masonry structure of a fixed-dome plant ………………………………………….51

Figure 4-9: Insitu biogas system to replace pit latrine in Cameroon…………………………………………52

Figure 4-10: Wooden manual press briquette machine ……………………………..……………………………54

Figure 4-11: Seeds and complete fruit of Irvingia …………………………………………………………………….56

vi

Figure 4-12: Locally made manual press…………………………………………………………………………………..57

Figure 5-1: Chat of decline in PV price…………………………………………………………………………………….61

Figure 5-2: Chat showing the level of GHG emission from both RE and non-RE resources…….65

Figure 5-3: Energy sector capital budget shares percentage and budget shares in million FCFA, 1990-

200………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….68

vii

List of Abbreviations/Acronyms

AES- Applied Energy services.

ALUCAM- Aluminium Smelter Plant, Cameroon

AER- Rural Electricity Agency

ARSEL- Electricity Sector Regulatory Agency, Cameroon

CDM- Clean Development Mechanism

CDC- Cameroon Development Corporation

CO2- Carbon Dioxide

EDC- Electricity Development Corporation

FCFA- Central African Franc

FAO- Food and Agricultural Organization

GHS- Green House Gas

GW- Gigawatts

GWh- Gigawatts Hour

GEF- Global Environmental Facility

GPOBA- Global partnership for Output Based Aids

viii

GTZ- German Organisation for Technical Corporation.

IEA- International Energy Agency

IPCC- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ICSs- Improved Cook Stoves

KWh- Kilowatts Hour

KM sq- Kilometer Square

MWh- Megawatts Hour

MINEE- Ministry of Energy and Water Resources

NASA- National Aeronautic and Space Administration.

NGO- Non Governmental Organization

PV- Photovoltaic

RE- Renewable Energy.

RET- Renewable Energy Technology

SONEL- Société Nationale d’Electricité du Cameroun. (Cameroon national electricity corporation).

SNH- Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures - national oil and gas company of Cameroon

TWh- Terawatt Hour

TIM- Transparent Insulation Material

ix

TREIA- Texas Renewable Energy Industrial Association

UNEP- United Nation Environmental Programme

VOC- Volatile Organic Compound

WCS- Wildlife Conservation Society

WWF- World Wild Fund for Nature

x

Table of Contents

List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... iv

List of figures ................................................................................................................................ v

List of Abbreviations/Acronyms ..................................................................................................... vii

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT .......................................................................................................... 2

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................... 3

1.3 LIMITATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 4

1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ................................................................................................... 5

CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review .................................................................................................. 6

2.1 The concept of solar energy technology............................................................................... 6

2.2 Issues with Biofuel ................................................................................................................ 6

2.3 Impact of solar and bioenergy on rural inhabitants. ............................................................ 8

(a) Impact of solar energy on rural inhabitants: ..................................................................... 8

(b) Impact of bioenergy on rural inhabitants......................................................................... 8

2.4 Solar production process and expected energy requirement ............................................ 10

2.4.1 PV systems energy requirements ................................................................................ 10

2.4.2 Crystalline silicon modules. ......................................................................................... 11

2.4.3 Thin-film modules. ....................................................................................................... 12

2.4.4 Other PV system components ..................................................................................... 13

2.5 Bioenergy production process and expected energy requirement .................................... 14

2.5.1Thermo-chemical conversion ....................................................................................... 14

2.5.2 Bio–chemical conversion ............................................................................................. 15

CHAPTER THREE: An Overview of Cameroon ............................................................................... 17

xi

3.1 GEOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW OF CAMEROON ...................................................................... 17

3.2 IN ............................................................................................................................................. 18

3.3 STATE OF AFFIARS OF ENERGY IN CAMEROON .................................................................. 19

3.4 Regulatory framework on renewable energy in Cameroon ............................................... 23

3.5 An overview of renewable energy resources in Cameroon ............................................... 25

3.6 An evaluation of Cameroon’s solar potential ..................................................................... 28

3.7 An evaluation of Cameroon’s biomass potential................................................................ 32

CHAPTER FOUR: Technological Analysis ....................................................................................... 37

4.1 State of the art of solar energy technology in Cameroon .................................................. 37

4.2 State of the art of bioenergy technology in Cameroon ...................................................... 37

Master plan for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon .................................. 39

4.3.1 Small scale solar technologies for short and long term rural energy supply in

Cameroon: ............................................................................................................................ 39

4.3.2 Small Scale biotechnologies for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon

............................................................................................................................................... 48

CHAPTER FIVE: Benefits and Challenges of Solar and Bioenergy in Cameroon. .......................... 59

5.1 Economic costs and benefits of solar and bioenergy in Cameroon ................................... 59

5.2 Environmental benefits of solar and bioenergy to Cameroon ........................................... 62

5.2.1 Greenhouse gas emission in Cameroon. ..................................................................... 63

5.2.2. Little or No Greenhouse Gas Emissions ...................................................................... 64

5.2.3 Improved Environmental Quality and Public Health ................................................... 66

5.3 Obstacles and Barriers of Solar and Bioenergy Development in Cameroon ...................... 67

5.3.1 Policy Barriers .............................................................................................................. 67

5.3.2 Economic Barriers ........................................................................................................ 68

5.3.3Technical Barrier ........................................................................................................... 70

xii

5.3.4 Social Cultural Barrier .................................................................................................. 70

CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion and Recommendation ......................................................................... 72

6.1 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 72

6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................................... 73

6.2.1 Overcoming barriers to solar and bioenergy adoption in Cameroon. ........................ 74

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 79

1

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

Harnessing renewable energy (RE) in Cameroon and the developing countries at large will pave way for

energy sustainability to the economically underprivileged fraction of the society. Fighting against energy

shortage from the stand point of renewable energy development is a panacea for rural infrastructural

development, and provides green energy, thereby trailing the line of Kyoto Protocol with respect to

global decarbonisation. This concept of RE development has become so popular in the past few decades

and could be directly linked to the increasing growth of environmental awareness and speedy depleting

reserves of non-renewable resources due to the unsustainable utilization, (Mohammed et al , 2013).

These concerns have evolved in seeking for a viable option to existing environmental problems and the

energy crisis state of affairs through a sustainable means. Throughout the globe, there is increasing

effort to meet up with the energy demands through sustainable means. This is due to the fact that

social, economic and environmental factors are taken into consideration. Energy is the main gear which

propels national development process as a domestic necessity and a principal factor of production,

whose cost directly affects price of other goods and services (Amigun et al, 2012). Cameroon and most

third world countries are well noted for their heavy dependence on traditional energy sources and this is

highly attributed to very poor access to renewable energy technologies. However, for sustainable

energy development to be achieved an ample transition to emerging technology must be put in place.

Despite the enormous energy potential endowed in the country, millions of Cameroonians still suffer

from severe energy crisis and the most affected part of the population are the poor and medium income

earners . It should also be noted that there are some high income earners who suffer same fate because

their money cannot help them out due to poor knowledge on RE technologies. This poor access to

energy supply results in a rise in the level of poverty, increased unemployment level, inadequate

economic and institutional development.

The rise in population and increased living standard will tremendously increase the country’s energy

demand. Energy crisis has affected public users and the phenomenon has obliged majority of the

population (both rural and urban) to depend on combustible RE source especially for domestic, farming

and small scale industrial uses. The most commonly used combustible energy sources in the entire

2

national territory are charcoal, fuel wood, sawdust farm residues and palm kernel. Apart from the last

two, the first three are noted for being unsustainable if not judiciously handled.

Beside the development of the county’s hydro power which is very limited compared to its present

potential exploited, there are several other unexploited RE resources such as wind, solar and

geothermal. Few trial cases of biofuel have been carried out and the development of solar energy is

restricted to few homes, public street lighting in Douala and Yaoundé, health centres and some churches

and mosques.

Given that Cameroon endowed with enormous energy potential (both renewable and non-renewable)

yet eaten up by the cancer worm of energy crisis, the development of solar and bioenergy technology

can help improve on the country’s energy situation by reducing the level of dependence on fossil fuels

and hydro power thus minimising the social, environmental and economic adverse effects brought by

these energy types commonly used in the country. Hence this study on the potential of solar and

bioenergy in Cameroon could help in solving the country’s energy palaver in almost all ramifications.

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Even though the oil-rich Bakassi peninsular was handed to Cameroon by the International Court of

Justice in October 2002 after the dispute with Nigeria, little or no impact is yet to be felt in the energy

sector and by Cameroonians at large. Insufficient productions capacity and increased demand for energy

has been a serious problem to Cameroon in the last few decades. This could be attributed to increase in

population and the improved living conditions of the wealthier part of the population. Sadly, these

demands fell short of glory due to constant increase in the cost of energy and persistent rationing of

electricity supply mostly during the dry seasons. As noted by the Cameroonian Minister of Energy and

Water Resources, Michael Ngako Tamdjo in May 2009 at Yaoundé, “It will be a very difficult task for

Cameroon to evolve into an emerging country by 2035 as planned if adequate energy supplies are not

put in place” (cited in Nchichupa 2011). To attain the desired energy requirements a lot of investments

associated with an adequate energy policy is essential for construction of new production amenities so

that there could be expansion of distribution and transmission (Tchouate 2003).

Infected with economic crisis and masked with external debt dating back the late 1980’s, securing new

finances for the energy sector became a talk of war. For sustainable energy development to be attained

in Cameroon the rural population must be taken into consideration. Such visions could be attained

3

through investing on a combined solar- and bioenergy system. The rationale behind this is not only

because of abundance in availability of these resources but also because of numerous social, economic

and environmental gains which could be attached to this energy type. For instance the country has the

third largest biomass potential in Africa (Grados and Janssen, 2008) with a maximum and minimum level

of solar radiation amounting to 5.75kWh/m²/d, and 4.2875kWh/m²/d respectively, (Tansi B .2011)

In 2002, the country in an effort to revitalise the electricity sector, privatised the national electricity

corporation (SONEL). Unfortunately this resulted to a curse rather than a blessing to the citizens.

Increase in rural electrification and extension of transmission lines were never attained. These problems

gave birth to a lot of questions about the energy situation in Cameroon. Thus the energy needs of

Cameroonians are unable to be met so far because the privatised company wants to reap maximum

benefit within shortest possible time, coupled with high level of corruption and poor energy policies in

the country (Nchichupa 2011).

This thesis therefore sought to address the following fundamental questions:

1. How can Cameroon endowed with enormous natural resources integrate alternative sources of

energy to meet up with her energy demands?

2. What are the stumbling barriers solar and bioenergy could encounter in production supply and

maintenance in Cameroon and how can they be overcome?

3. In what ways will these energy types benefit the citizens (especially the rural poor) and the

environment at large?

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This thesis attempt to appraise the solar and bioenergy potential in Cameroon with focus on building up

an understanding of how energy generated from these sources (with enormous potentials) could

contribute to sustainable development in the country.

It also scrutinizes the present state of electricity generation, transmission and allotment, the problems

encountered and the lack of ability to attain the countries energy demands. Furthermore this thesis will

try to revitalise the energy sector in a more sustainable manner, it will also examine the initiatives and

4

legal framework in the energy sector of Cameroon. The potential role of solar and bioenergy will be

examined in ameliorating the country’s energy palaver.

The particular objectives of this thesis are as follows:

1. Assess the solar and bioenergy potential in Cameroon.

2. Identify the main hurdles inhibiting renewable energy development in Cameroon.

3. Discuss the social economic and environmental gains from using solar- and bioenergy.

4. Offer recommendations that should serve as an all-inclusive guide for a sustainable

management of the energy sector in Cameroon.

For these objectives to be realized a reassessment of the regulatory framework will be done to help in

identification of the principal problems bedevilling the country’s energy sector, and will serve as a part

of the solution to the problem statement and research questions.

1.3 LIMITATIONS

Both at the local and international scene the renewable energy cause is quite a recent development and

of late nuclear crisis in Japan speed up the call for so many countries to give a second thought on

renewable energy for energy generation. A good example is Germany which has already fixed a dateline

for 2021 to put an end to all its nuclear facilities (Effanga, 2010). Despite the fact that the principal

source of electricity generation in Cameroon is from hydro dams which is also renewable, the advent of

global climatic change has also post a serious problem by means of droughts as a result of prolonged dry

season experienced by the country in the last few years.

My studies will be limited from the 1970s till date, mainly for the purpose of this thesis. This time frame

preference emanates from the fact that the first ever hydro power stations were finally mounted for

electricity generation and distribution in the 1970s (Nchichupa, 2011).

It will be imperative to take a brief look at different impacts of these dams on the environment and the

general public at the time, and also see how the electricity sector has metamorphosed until date.

Nonetheless to confine this work, my focal point will be the 1990s (when economic crisis struck

Cameroon) to present date. This will help our understanding of the evil bedevilling the country’s energy

5

sector. This thesis will not dwell much on Cameroons electricity sector but it will pretty much be looking

at how solar and bioenergy can be developed in the entire national territory, especially in the rural areas

where grid connection is almost totally absent; with this in place poverty will be alleviated.

1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

In order to provide answers to the above raised questions; the author decided to structure this thesis as

outlined below. Chapter two will provide a review of related literature on solar and bioenergy issues.

Chapter three contains the study context, describing the geographical overview, energy state of affairs,

and an evaluation of solar and bioenergy potential in the country. Chapter four which is the technical

analysis talks about the technological state of arts and innovations on solar and bioenergy in Cameroon.

Chapter five explains the economic and environmental benefits of solar and bioenergy in the country

and finally chapter six is the conclusion and recommendation.

6

CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review

2.1 The concept of solar energy technology

It is been recorded that less than one billionth of the sun energy is received here on earth, ‘in spite of its

huge potential, solar energy provides only a tiny proportion of the world energy needs’ (Daniel D.Chiras,

2013). This energy is very clean and abundant in supply hence there is no doubt that it will play a major

role in contributing to future energy needs of Cameroon. The use of solar energy has been dated back

since the ancient times; for instance as far back as 212 BC, Archimedes the Greek scientist, made use of

the reflective bronze properties shields to focus sunlight and to set fire to wooden ships from the

Roman Empire which were besieging Syracuse. In 1973 same experiment was recreated by Greek navy

and successfully set fire to a wooden boat at a distance of 50 meters, (US Department of energy 2012).

Among the solar energy technology types are: solar photovoltaic, solar thermal electricity, solar heating,

artificial photosynthesis and solar architecture. Understanding these technology types is a yard stick for

our assessment of its potential thus giving us a better focus on why we should invest on it in a country

like Cameroon with huge potentials. Active passive and solar technologies generally typify this energy

type depending on the technique used for capturing, converting and distributing the energy. Solar

thermal collectors and photovoltaic panels make use of active techniques to exploit the energy. On the

other hand passive solar techniques consist of designing a building in favour to the sun position,

appropriate choice of material with good thermal mass and good air circulating space design. "The

development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-

term benefits. It will increase countries energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible

and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of

mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are

global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning

investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared"(IEA, 2011, p 22.).

2.2 Issues with Biofuel

In the past decades biofuel has generated intensive discussion following the alteration of energy

situation worldwide. This situation has given birth to intellectual brainstorming around the globe,

notable among which are; ‘International Biofuel Conference’ in November 2008 in Brazil and the

objective was to address biofuel issues in relation to sustainable development, trade, food security and

climate change (Effanga, 2010). In the year 2009 Winrock International India (WII) organized an

international biofuel conference with the aim of identifying possible impacts of biofuel in relation to the

7

agricultural sector. This same year recorded the famous Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP 15)

which involved about 170 countries, NGOs, among others, whose purpose was to review the climate

agreement so as to prevent global warming and climate change. Biofuel was considered as an option

though this resulted in continued debate because of the complexity involved in biofuel development

(Borgen, 2009).

This intellectual brainstorming around the globe metamorphosed into two schools of thought; those in

favour and those against biofuel development.

Those in favour of biofuel are of the opinion that within a rural community biofuel has the potential to

make available economic development as well as a reliable and sustainable energy source that would

boom the world’s farming sector, (Von Braun and Pachauri, 2006). Food security could be affected both

at national and household level thereby giving room for a greater fraction of the population to have

enough income to be food-secured (FAO, 2008b; IEA 2008). To further support biofuel development

(Maltitz and Brent, 2008) argues that biofuel increases the level of development in Africa’s rural area as

a result of increase in energy security. A reasonable amount of rural jobs could be provided to the rural

inhabitants due to biofuel development. To sum it all (Raswant et al, 2008) strongly believe that

investing in biofuel could tremendously contribute to rural economic growth, poverty reduction and

employment.

On the other hand, some scholars see biofuel as a source of many unforeseen problems because of the

peril and difficulties linked to the development of biofuel. For instance by questioning the biofuel’s net

energy, Barbara (2007) points out that the desirable energy does not provide more energy than what it

takes to produce it. Furthermore he questions whether agro-fuels combination can provide the extolled

benefit as seen by a lot of supporters (Barbara, 2007). As very large portions of land are used for biofuel

rather than food crops production, there is room for an anticipated rise in food insecurity thereby

increasing the negative impact of hunger and starvation on the poor rural populace (Runge and Senauer,

2007).

According to FAO, more pressure is placed on natural resources which in turn have negative

environmental, social and economic consequences as a result of biofuel development. This situation is

awful especially for those who are already faced with energy, food, land and water deficiencies. One of

the principal drivers of food crises according to Special Rapportuer is the ill-conceived conversion of

such food as wheat, sugar, maize and palm oil into fuel. This has contributed to a rise in the level of

8

hunger globally and the hungry population has increased to about 845 million (Special Rapporteur,

2007).

Even though there is a battle between food and fuel as a result of biofuel development, Cameroon is not

a problem area when it comes to food crisis. This country remains the main food supplier to the entire

Central African countries (IEA,2010) nevertheless it is wise to act sustainably less the country will go into

a shock of food crisis like most other African countries.

2.3 Impact of solar and bioenergy on rural inhabitants.

(a) Impact of solar energy on rural inhabitants:

Even though Cameroon has a huge solar potential, millions of Cameroonians especially in the rural areas

have no access to electricity supply. Hence some efforts have been made in the past years to popularise

solar PV technology so as to meet up with the energy need of those Cameroonians who are not

connected to grid power supply. Despite the fact that solar panel prices have significantly reduced, the

cost remains still high for most rural people who are basically peasant farmers (Mathias G. and Anders E.

2004). Several projects have been embarked on to publicize and distribute solar technology in Africa.

Some governments have supported the solar technology programmes so as to meet up with the energy

needs of the rural poor, e.g. South Africa, (DME, Annual report 2002), Zimbabwe (Dube I, 2001), and

Ghana (Abavana C.G 2000). Kenya has recorded very high success in this sector by relying on the market

forces (Duke R D. et al, 2003). With the dissemination of solar technology systems in the rural areas of

Cameroon and the less developed countries at large a wide range of impact can be felt by the rural

people. Among which are: light, operation of television and radio sets, charging of mobile phones, and

other communication equipment, water pumps, fans, sterilization of rural hospital equipments,

preservation of crops till when they will be ready for market ,running of small scale businesses in the

rural area, job opportunities, improved living standard among others.

(b) Impact of bioenergy on rural inhabitants

The World Bank records show that almost half of world population lives on less than $2 a day;

approximately a third of human race does have limited or no access to electricity and almost one billion

persons do not eat enough calories regularly to be healthy and active (World Bank, 2006 cited in

Barbara, 2007). According to Runge and Senauer (2007), government policies and other stakeholders

9

have a lot of influence on issues of biofuel on rural poor populace. They pointed out that ‘the choice of

using 450 pounds of maize for food to fill a 25-gallon tank of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) with pure

ethanol’ is an issue of government decision. This same amount of maize channelled to fuel automobile

can contain sufficient calories to maintain an individual for a year. In Cameroon, car owners are

economically stronger than majority who’s source of revenue are from subsistence farming; therefore

this economically stronger class of the country who are ready to pay higher amount of money for biofuel

may influence agro fuel farmers to grow fuel crops rather than food crops. Furthermore, this is an

indication that the poor rural dwellers that operate at subsistence level end up being hungrier for the

reason that the heavy wage earners with automobiles disburse more funds to get food transformed to

fuel. In this case agro fuel crop farmers maximize huge profits by selling at very higher price to those

who can afford the payment. To buttress the above point Barbara say thus: “there are indications that

the caloric intake among the world’s poor could decline by anywhere from 15 percent to 65 percent by

2020 if current higher food prices are maintained (Barbara 2007 p, 17)”. Barbara also frowned regarding

the fact that cassava (tropical potato) which is a staple food that provides about one-third of sub-

Saharan African calorific needs and a primary staple for more than 200 million is considered an option

for Biofuel feed stuck with countries like Nigeria, Thailand and China already indicating interest (ibid).

Neocolonialism is unfortunately taking place in most African countries all in the name of energy security

and climate friendly development projects thus instigating a lot of intertribal and land conflicts among

poor rural dwellers. Though some of the projects have positive impact to an extent, their direct effect to

the rural poor most at times have produce catastrophic results. A number of World Bank and its regional

affiliate’s biofuel development projects may possibly be documented to have social, economic and

environment benefits, but at the level of implementation, they literally displace poor communities into

even more marginal land and often involve intimidation, forced evacuation and violence (Barbara,

2007).

Though traditional charcoal production remains a key source of employment for the rural poor in

Cameroon and sub Saharan Africa in general, on the other hand it is considered to be an unsustainable

practice. Various strategies to improve and bring up to date small-scale biomass energy systems to

guarantee a sustainable use of biomass energy represent a vital component of sub-Saharan African

countries national energy strategies and could potentially yield major benefits to both the urban and

rural poor (Karekezi, 2002). Karekezi et al went further to elaborate on this point as follows; “the last 2

decades has recorded significant effort towards the innovation of small-scale biomass energy systems.

10

Notable among the most sustained efforts have been the innovations on energy efficient charcoal kiln

and an environmentally friendly improved cookstove for rural and urban households in sub-Saharan

Africa. These initiatives have both recorded significant benefits to the poor in Africa. Improved

cookstoves which make up a facet of the informal sector have been well-known, for creating jobs and

reducing the rate of charcoal consumption to bulk of the poor population in sub-Saharan Africa”

(Karekezi et al 2005, p4). Furthermore he elucidated on the overall benefits of small scale biogas system

for rural poor in Africa, stressing that ‘more practical development and dissemination of appropriate

biomass energy technologies for small and medium-scale rural industries could yield significant benefits

to both the rural and urban poor of Africa of which Cameroon is not an exception ’(ibid).

2.4 Solar production process and expected energy requirement

One of the top most RE technologies which remain very promising in terms of contribution to the supply

of sustainable energy and mitigation of greenhouse gas emission is photovoltaic energy conversion. This

has motivated a lot of government and international organizations to embark on research and

development programmes and market penetration schemes in PV technology systems. To meet up with

the above promises PV technology must fulfil two major prerequisites: ‘first the performance and cost

ratio of PV electricity generation must be within an acceptable limit and second the PV systems net

energy yield must be far higher than zero’ (Alsema and Nieuwlaar, 2000). To buttress the above point

they further explain thus: “every new energy technology, termed `renewable or `sustainable should be

subjected to an energy balance analysis so as to assess its `energy viability and to work out the net

energy yield. It is also pertinent to note that such an energy analysis is based on data for present-

generation systems and also considers expected advancement in production and energy system

technology. In view of the fact that energy consumption generally has significant environmental

implications, the energy analysis may be considered as a first step towards a more comprehensive

environmental life-cycle assessment. In addition, energy analysis results offer a good indication of the

CO2 mitigation potential of the considered energy technology” (ibid, p1.).

2.4.1 PV systems energy requirements

Quite a substantial amount of detailed studies of the above subtopic have been published over the past

decade, notable among them are Hagedorn and Hellriegel, 1992; Phylipsen and Alsema, 1995;

Alsema,1996; Nijs et al., 1997; Keoleian and Lewis, 1997; Franklet al., 1998; Kato et al., 1998) to mention

11

but a few. Based on this report I will look at crystalline silicon, thin-film and other PV system

components modules.

2.4.2 Crystalline silicon modules.

According to Alsema and Nieuwlaar, (2000) ‘the energy conversion efficiency is around 13% for

multicrystalline silicon and around 14% for mono-crystalline silicon modules’. In order to understand

this, a brief outline of the production process by Alsema and Nieuwlaar is given below: ‘Silicon is

produced from silica (SiO2) which is mined as quartz sand. Reduction of silica in large arc furnaces yields

metallurgical-grade silicon, which has to be purified further to electronic-grade silicon before it is

suitable for manufacturing of electronic components such as integrated circuits or solar cells. Moreover,

both the electronics industry and the PV industry use silicon in a (mono) crystalline form. Therefore, the

silicon is molten and subsequently crystallized under carefully controlled conditions so that large blocks

or ingots of crystalline material are obtained. After removal of the outer edges of the ingot (material of

insufficient quality), the ingots are sawn into smaller blocks and then into thin slabs or wafers. Typical

wafers are 0.3 mm thick and 100 cm2 in area. Wafers of either mono-crystalline or multi-crystalline

silicon are the starting point for the actual solar cell production, which involves several steps that will

not be explained here’ (ibid). The table below explains that the process of silicon winning and

purification consumed the largest amount of energy and is accountable for close to half the energy

requirement of this module. This according to Bruton et al could be explained by the fact that

“purification is performed by a highly energy intensive process and the purity criteria are laid down by

the electronics industry, which consumes about 90% of the `electronic-gradea silicon’ (Bruton et al.,

1996)

12

Table 2-1

Source: (Alsema E.A and Nieuwlaar, 2000)

Silicon wafer production from the electronic-grade silicon also has an important input to the energy

consumption, principally for the reason that 60% of the material lost takes place during multi-crystalline

silicon ingots formation and the sawing of these ingots into wafers (Nijs et al., 1997). On the whole the

production of the silicon wafers requires about 3200 MJ/m2 module area, which is about 60% of the

total energy requirement for the module, (Alsema and Nieuwlaar, 2000).

More detailed crystallization process in mono-crystalline silicon wafers increases the energy

requirement with an additional 1500MJ/m2. The more modest energy requirements (300 MJ/m2) are

those for cell and module processing, (ibid)

2.4.3 Thin-film modules.

According to Alsema and Nieuwlaar this models are made by ‘depositing a thin (0.5-10Um) layer of

semiconductor material on a substrate (usually a glass plate)’ furthermore they explained that

deposition of thin-film has diverse ways in which it can be performed, notable among the ways are:

chemical vapour deposition, evaporation, electrolytic deposition and chemical bath deposition,(Alsema

13

E.A and Nieuwlaar, 2000). In order to debunk this issue they put forth the following: “depending on the

selected deposition technique the material properties, material utilization rate and the energy

consumption for the deposition process will vary. Processes employing elevated temperatures and/or

vacuum conditions will generally have higher energy consumption per m2 processed substrate area.

Contact layers are also deposited with chemical vapour deposition (transparent contacts) and

evaporation (back contacts). Between the subsequent layers deposition steps the individual solar cells

are defined by removing some of the previously deposited material with laser scribing. When the

processing of the solar cells has been completed the module is finally encapsulated with a second glass

plate or with a polymer. Depending on the intended application and on the manufacturer the module

may be left frameless or it may be equipped with an aluminium or polymer frame. The main difference

with crystalline silicon technology is that with thin-film technology in each process step the entire

module area of 0.5-1 m2 is processed. In crystalline silicon technology, on the other hand, individual

wafers of 100-200 cm2 need to be cut, processed and subsequently combined into a module”(ibid).

At the moment, thin-film modules have significantly lesser conversion efficiencies than c-Si modules,

with values ranging from 5 to 8 percent. Polymer back covers can be an alternative to be swished to, like

in crystalline silicon technology; it may possibly reduce the energy requirement by some 150 MJ/m2, but

in case of toxic solar cell materials such as CdTe or CuInSe2 (Fthenakis et al., 1999) this would be less

desirable (Alsema et al., 1997).

2.4.4 Other PV system components

Balance-of-system in this case is referred to all components in a PV system apart from the modules.

Support materials are an unavoidable necessity in any given grid or off grid PV system, akin to the

economic analyses of PV systems the Balance-of-System in energy analyses is also unavoidable. As far

back as 1998 Frankl and others worked on the primary energy content of PV systems in buildings and

they took into consideration the a number of applications on the top of roofs and building facades and

they also did not fail to look at the 3.3MWp ground-mounted system in Serre – Italy (Frankl, 1998). This

work was also reviewed by Alsema and Nieuwlaar and they concluded that ‘the array support materials

for the Serre plant required an energy input of more than 1800 MJ/m2. In the case of roof-integrated

modules, the Balance-of-System energy requirements are around 700 MJ/m2’ (Alsema and Nieuwlaar,

2000). It is pertinent to understand here that the prerequisite of Balance- of – system in energy has

much to do with the desired application.

14

2.5 Bioenergy production process and expected energy requirement

Bioenergy conversion process encompasses a broad range of diverse sources and types of biomass,

conversion techniques, infrastructure requirements and end -user applications. Among the sources of

biomass in Cameroon are; short rotation energy crops such as groundnut cassava etc, perennial grasses,

etc; forestry and non-forestry plant residues etc, algae, waste from livestock and biomass waste like

sludge from organic industrial waste and organic domestic waste or the wastes themselves. Biomass

feedstock must follow the following procedure before being processed into a form suitable for the

chosen energy conversion technology; harvested/collected, transported and possibly stored (McKendry,

2002).

A number of processes can be applied in the conversion of biomass into a valuable form of energy and

this could be influenced by following factors: ‘the type and quantity of biomass feedstock; the desired

form of the energy, i.e. end-use requirements; environmental standards; economic conditions; and

project specific factors’ (McKendry, 2002). In most cases the processed route is determine by the form

in which the energy is required then the available types and quantities of biomass follow suit. Among

the three main products that biomass can be converted into are: transportation fuels, power/heat

generation and chemical feedstock. The main technological processes involved in biomass conversion

are; thermo-chemical, bio-chemical/biological and mechanical extraction (ibid).

2.5.1Thermo-chemical conversion

Thermo-chemical conversion of biomass to energy involved three main processes, combustion,

gasification and pyrolysis:

(a) Combustion; biomass burning in air is broadly used to convert already stored chemical energy in

biomass into electricity, heat and mechanical power and this is achieved through process item

equipments such as ;steam turbines, furnaces, boilers, stoves turbo-generators etc. gases with ranging

temperature 800-1000 0C is produced by biomass combustion. Practically biomass with less than 50%

moisture content is the ideal type for burning contrary to this then its rather suitable for biological

process of energy conversion. According to (;Aston University and DK Teknik,1993; Warren Spring

Laboratory,1993a, b; EU,1999, Mitsui Babcock,1997), combustion plants range from small domestic to

15

large scale industrial plants of 100 – 3000 MW respectively, with a conversion efficiency of 20% to 40%

and they are of the opinion that when the system is above 100MWe, higher efficiencies are obtained.

(b) Gasification; this has to do with biomass conversion into combustible gas combination via

incomplete oxidation of biomass at very hot temperatures, of about 800–900 0C. ‘The low calorific value

gas produced (about 4–6 MJ=N m3) can be burnt directly or used as a fuel for gas engines and gas

turbines (LRZ, 1993; Natural Resources Institute, 1996 cited in McKendry, 2002). Product gas from this

process could also serve as a very good feedstock (syngas) in the production of chemicals.

(c) Pyrolysis; this is the process of biomass conversion into liquid (bio-oil), solid and gaseous fraction.

Usually this is done by heating the biomass with nonexistence of air to about 5000C (McKendry, 2002).

This process is used for bio-oil production with an efficiency of up to 80%, but the problem with this

process and use of the oil is the poor thermal stability and it corrosiveness . Some studies have been

carried out to solve these problems, for example ‘upgrading bio-oils by lowering the oxygen content and

removing alkalis by means of hydrogenation and catalytic cracking of the oil may be required for certain

applications’ (ibid).

2.5.2 Bio–chemical conversion

The two main processes involved here are anaerobic digestion and fermentation followed by a lesser

used process which is mechanical extraction/chemical conversion.

Anaerobic digestion; in this situation organic material is converted directly to biogas, a combination of

principally methane and carbon dioxide with minute quantities of supplementary gases such as

hydrogen sulphide (EU, 1999). According to McKendry “the biomass is converted by bacteria in an

anaerobic environment, producing a gas with an energy content of about 20–40% of the lower heating

value of the feedstock. Anaerobic digestion is a commercially proven technology and is widely used for

treating high moisture content organic wastes that is +80– 90% moisture. Biogas can be used directly in

spark ignition gas engines and gas turbines and can be upgraded to higher quality such as natural gas

quality, by the removal of CO2. Used as a fuel in spark ignition gas engines to produce electricity only,

the overall conversion efficiency from biomass to electricity is about 10–16%”(McKendry, 2002).

Fermentation; in most cases this process is used in large scale to produce ethanol from high content

sugar and starch crops (e.g. sugar cane, sugar beet, cassava, maize, wheat, etc),“the biomass is ground

down and the starch converted by enzymes to sugars, with yeast then converting the sugars to ethanol.

16

Purification of ethanol by distillation is an energy-intensive step, with about 450 l of ethanol being

produced per ton of dry corn” (ibid). The residue from this process can be used as feed for livestock and

in the case of sugarcane; the bagasse can act as fuel both for subsequent gasification and boiler

(Coombs, 1996). Lignocelluloses (wood and grasses) biomass conversion remains complex as a result of

the ‘longer-chain polysaccharide molecules and requires acid or enzymatic hydrolysis before the

resulting sugars can be fermented to ethanol. Such hydrolysis techniques are currently at the pre-pilot

stage, (McKendry, 2002).

Mechanical extraction; this process makes use of mechanical means to extract oil from oil-content

biomass crops such as palm oil seeds, groundnuts, rapeseeds, cotton, etc. the solid ‘cake residual’ from

this process is very palatable for livestock and fisheries. In the case of rapeseeds, three tons are required

per ton of rapeseed oil to be produced. Esterification process can further be used by reacting rapeseed

oil with alcohol to produce bio-diesel which is commonly used in some European countries at the

moment (Warren Spring Laboratory, 1993a).

17

CHAPTER THREE: An Overview of Cameroon

3.1 GEOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW OF CAMEROON

The Republic of Cameroon is the world’s 53rd largest country with a land mass of 181,252sq mi (475.650

km sq) with 2,317 sq mi (6000km,sq) of water. The country is located in west and central Africa between

the 2nd and 13th northern parallels and longitudes 9 and 16 degrees east. Cameroon is bordered to the

west by Nigeria, to the east by Central Africa Republic, to the south by Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and

Congo and to the north east by Chad. The apex of the map is Lake Chad (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009).

Below are land borders of Cameroon with the neighbouring countries:

-1 690 km with Nigeria

-1 094 km with Chad

-797 km with Central African Republic

-523 km with Congo Republic

-298 km with Gabon

- 189 km with Equatorial Guinea

The country’s population as at July 2013 is estimated at about 20,549,221 inhabitants and a growth rate

of 2.082% (CIA, 2013). There is a very high rate of uneven distribution of Cameroons population, with an

estimated population density of 34.45 persons per square km, with urban and rural population of 58%

and 42% respectively (IEA2012).

Cameroon is described by the government as "Africa in miniature", promoting its multiplicity of culture,

climate and geography, (among which are rainforest, coastal, savannah, mountains and deserts, all

represented in Cameroon). The southern part is humid but increasingly towards the north it is dry.

About 4060mm is the annual amount of rainfall along the coastal region; that of the semi-arid northwest

is measured at about 380mm while the north measures rainfall rates between 7000-1600mm with a

short wet season that runs from May to October. The south records 250 C as the average temperature,

210 C on the plateau and 32 0C in the north. The mean sunshine per year is over 3000 hour with an

average solar radiation intensity of 240 W/m2. The north records an average solar irradiance of about

5.8kWh/day/m2 while in the rest of the country about 4.9kWh/day/m2 is recorded (Ngnikam and

Tolole, 2009).

18

These rich geographical features create room for enormous renewable energy resources that could be

used for energy generation. Below is a map of Cameroon to explaining the above geographical overview

of the country.

Figure 3-1: Physical Map of Cameroon.

3.2 INSTITUTIONAL OVERVIEW OF CAMEROON

The Republic of Cameroon is a strong centralised government dominated by the president who has been

in power since the 6th November 1982 (CIA, 2013). The political state of affairs has witnessed relative

stability over the last two decades, but this is due to the fact that the ruling government has been able

to use some cruel measures to suppress the citizens. To buttress this point (Ruhaak, 2011) is of the view

that though the country claims to be a multi-party democracy, the ruling Cameroonian People’s

19

Democratic Movement (CPDM) does not put up with opposition parties or anti-government groups.

During these 31years in power the ruling president has been able to dismantle the opposition and took

full control over the media. Furthermore Ruhaak holds that, “while political freedom is hindered by

Biya’s (president) authoritarian rule, both economic activity and social mobility are obstructed by

persistent corruption. Cameroon only ranks 146th (out of 178) on the corruption perception index and

168th (out of 183) on the ease of doing business index. The country’s performance on social indicators is

not better. It ranks 131st out of 169 on the human development index, while 33% of its population earns

less than USD 1.25 a day. These indicators reflect the government’s failure to build facilities and

generate employment for around 30% of the population (Ruhaak, 2011, p3). According to CIA (2013)

about 48 percent of Cameroonians are living below the poverty line and the basic rate of literacy is

68percent. All these are likely indicators of the low level of renewable energy development in the the

country.

3.3 STATE OF AFFIARS OF ENERGY IN CAMEROON

In Cameroon the Ministry of Energy and Water (MINEE) has the sole responsibility for government

action implementation in the national energy policy. The MINEE formulates policies and provides

technical and administrative supervision of state and partly state owned corporation in the energy

sector. The corporation responsible for electricity is SONEL while that of petroleum and natural gas is

done, through its national oil company, Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH). ‘SNH reports

directly to the president and is responsible for promoting the development of the country's hydrocarbon

resources, and management of the state's interests in any discoveries of oil and gas resources’ (MBendi

information services 2013)

Endowed with a lot of natural resources such as biomass, natural gas, solar, hydro potential to mention

but a few, Cameroon is still suffering from energy crisis. Despite the fact that the country has the second

highest hydroelectricity potential in Africa after the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a gross hydro

potential of about 55.2GW (small hydroelectric sites excluded with an estimated technical potential of

1,115TW/an) and of which technically 19.7GW can be harnessed (Njeri Wamukonya et al 2001),

electricity generation and coverage over the entire nation is still very low. Those connected to the

national grid are about 25% with the rural population accounting for just 6% of the grid coverage.

Economically it is not viable to invest on grid in the rural areas of Cameroon due to low consumption

and rough terrain which makes it very expensive thus decentralise electricity system such as solar and

bioenergy for the rural population of Cameroon is a more rational option. According to (IEA2001) wood

20

(traditional biomass) and oil are very important energy sources to the people of Cameroon with

traditional biomass accounting for above 76.9% of local energy consumption as at then. As the years

passed by this situation changes as will be seen in the latter part of this work in section 3.6.

As a result of the poor electricity situation in Cameroon, the government decided to privatize this sector

and 56% of the electricity sector was handed over to an American corporation (AES) with a hope of

positively impacting Cameroonians in this sector and that most of the alternative energy resource will be

invested upon. The reverse actually became the case as Cameroonians experienced the peak of power

rationing and constant seizure of electricity especially from 2006 till date (Tansi, 2011). In such a

situation, one is tempted to ask a question thus: ‘why can AES not meet up to the electricity demands of

Cameroonians (considering the fact that America has celebrated a centenary of no power failure)

despite Cameroon’s abundant renewable energy potentials at its disposal?’ Summarily the electricity

demand is more than the supply; coupled with the fact that industries who pay far less than private

individuals consume greater part of the electricity. Predominantly, electricity energy mix in this country

is obtained from hydropower which accounts for about 76% and the remaining 24% is from

conventional thermal. It must be noted that other sources of renewable energy are operational but the

level of significance is very low. The country’s generation capacity as of March 2011 was 981 MW. Of

that full amount, 721 MW of capacity is hydropower and its thermal power constitutes 260 MW (heavy

oil and diesel) (ibid). Below are figures of the three hydropower plants and electricity mix in Cameroon

respectively.

Table 3-1: Cameroon hydropower plants

21

Figure 3-2: Cameroon electricity statistics

(source:IAE 2008)

In line with the above is the fact that; “energy in Cameroon plays a pivotal role in shaping the economy

of the country. With reserve of oil and natural gas, Cameroon is following new policies to improve and

develop other sources of energy (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009). A rise in global competition has led to the

expansion of the energy sector in Cameroon. Energy in Cameroon comprises oil and natural gas

reserves, hydroelectric energy etc. The Major sources of energy in Cameroon include fuel wood,

hydropower and petroleum (ibid).

Cameroon began offshore production in 1977. Annual production has gradually fallen since 1985 and

the decline is expected to continue as the existing reserves are depleted. Output amounted to 76,600

barrels per day in 2001 down from 100,000 barrels per day in 1999. However as of 2002 Cameroon was

still sub- Saharan Africa’s fifth-largest crude oil producer. Cameroon currently relies on hydropower for

its electricity generation. Electrical energy is produced by mostly hydroelectric stations located on

Sananga River. Nearly 60% of the power in this station goes to aluminum smelter at Edea ALUCAM.

Cameroon’s installed electrical capacity was 819,000kW in 2001. Total production of electricity in 2000

was 3.5 billion kWh” (Encyclopedia of the nations, in Tansi B. N 2011).

After the privatization of the electricity sector, Cameroon’s national electricity corporation (SONEL) in

2001 opened up the sector for new investors, since then the government has continued to develop

strategies to increase medium and long term energy supply but the present situation explains that these

strategies are almost insignificant to prevent power outages.

22

The estimated energy consumption of Cameroon as of 2009 was 3,490 GWh, natural gas accounts for

3.7% of its energy needs, hydropower records 5.0%, oil accounts for 27.2% and biomass and waste

makes up 64.1%. This situation is represented in figure 3.3below

Figure 3.3: estimated energy consumption of Cameroon.

Source :(IAE statistics 2009)

According to 2009 factsheet of AES SONEL (the corporation responsible for electric energy generation,

transmission and distribution in Cameroon), there is an installed 229 MW capacity of electricity including

206 MW of thermal energy. To buttress this point (Tansi2012), says thus: “AES SONEL generates 3685

GWh electrical energy annually, 2,799 GWH of which is sold to the public. AES SONEL has an access rate

of 15%, including just 4% in rural areas. The county’s electricity coverage rate is 46% by means of 20

agencies and 117 offices serving a total of 553,186 subscribers” (ibid, p3). AES SONEL records an overall

of 43 electricity generation facilities among which constitutes:

- hydropower plants (Songloulou 400 MW, daily modulation basin in Edea, a run-off river power plant of

265Mw and 72 Mw-Lagdo, head reservoir),

- Three dam reservoirs for regulating river Sanaga: Bamendjin, Mbakaou and lagdo, with an entire

amount of 7.3 Gm2 13.

- Six diesel thermal networking Oyomabang, Bassa, Logbaba, Bafoussam, Djamboutou and Limbe and

- Three isolated power plants (ibid).

23

3.4 Regulatory framework on renewable energy in Cameroon

Rural electrification in particular and rural development in general has been a top priority on the policy

agenda of the government of Cameroon for the last four decades. Due to low rate of electricity coverage

in the country and fact that the national electricity corporation that was mandated to electrify the

whole country has been performing very poor the government in 1998 decided to restructure this sector

with the aim of improving its contribution to the country’s social and economic development and to

help alleviate rural poverty in particular and all over the national territory as a whole (SME, 2004 cited in

Tansi 2011).

This part of the thesis reassesses the decrees and regulatory frameworks laid down in the energy sector

by the government of Cameroon with emphasis on renewable energy. To attain these goals chain of

reforms and policies to encourage well-organized energy sector with an inclusion of private sectors

contribution for future social economic development was taken into consideration (ibid).

Following the restructuring of the electricity sector in 1998 was an adoption of the Electricity Law. In

1999 Rural Electricity Agency (AER) was created and charged with the responsibility to promote and

implement rural electrification in the country and to manage the rural energy funds. Electricity Sector

Regulatory Agency (ARSEL) created in 2000, being the second institutional arm of the electricity after the

Ministry of Energy and Water (MINEE) was mandated to regulate electricity sector, setting rates and

determining standards for electricity. The Electricity Development Corporation (EDC) was created in

2006 with a strategic role to expand on the electricity sector while conserving the sector’s public

heritage and in charge of construction and development of the county’s hydroelectric projects (Lighting

Africa 2012).

At the moment Cameroon has no concrete regulations in particular dealing with issues on renewable

energy, nonetheless as a subset of the general energy guiding principle RE will be considered under the

laws enacted below.

Law NO 96/ 36 PM to set up a National Committee of the World Energy Council.

The Prime Ministry of the Republic of Cameroon published this law on the 22nd of February 1996 to set

National committee of world energy council via MINEE. The responsibilities of this committee are found

in article II of the above law, which basically are to make sure Cameroon partake in the World Energy

Council meetings and to keep an eye on the implementation of the council’s recommendation in

Cameroon. The operation and organization of the committee are found in article III of the law.

24

Law NO 98/022 governing the electricity sector

This law which took effect from the 24th of December 1998 administers the entire (both primary and

secondary sources of energy), production, distribution, import-export and sales of electricity in

Cameroon by home based and foreign corporations.

Section I stipulates the following;

- Set the proviso for production, supply, importation, exportation and sales of electricity;

- Institute the foundation for reasonable business environment in the electricity sector so as to

improve economic efficiency.

- Decide on modalities to check on how specific obligations by those engaged in non-competitive

activities are implemented;

- Set up the rules for environmental and consumer protection, with regards to prices, supplies

conditions and safety requirements;

- Assurance of permanence and excellence services.

Following the above stated points, primary sources of energy as defined by the law are those which

subsist in their innate forms within the national territory of Cameroon or are brought into the country to

be used as fuel, for example organic matters (crude oil, biomass, fuel gas petroleum etc); transformed

into other energy forms; or acquire from RE sources.

Section III of this same law specifies the functions of the electricity segment and positioned

them under the following agenda: licensing, free scheme, authorization, declaration and concession.

Law N0 99/125 to set up the organization and functioning of the Electricity Sector

Regulatory Agency

The office of the Presidency of Republic of Cameroon published this law on June 1999 which follows the

laid down conditions for the running of the above mentioned agency. The task was to keep a close mark-

up to the activities in the electricity sector and to adjudicate on issue between operators in the

electricity sector when the need arises.

Law N0 99/193 relating the organisation and functioning of the rural electrification

agency

25

This law was published by the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon in September 1999 to offer

consumers and operators the financial and technical support needed for rural electricity development.

Section II of the law stipulates that the agency should be under the supervision of the state service

responsible for electricity affairs, with this under control, they will be able to define state policies in the

sector of rural electrification.

For the purpose of this work the other related laws all found in (Texts governing the electricity sector)

will be left out. Of utmost important here is the fact that the government of Cameroon has developed

strong signals to beef up the energy sector as clearly indicated in the laid down energy laws of the state.

Nonetheless it will not be an overstatement to say most of these laws are more of paper works rather

than practical issues due to the fact that the level of development in the institutions that produce power

is very low coupled with weak institutions and judiciary structure and corrupt government

representatives who does not pave way for energy generation as earlier mentioned in section 3.2 . To

buttress this point List (1995) is of the view that, “although laws and public institutions do not produce

immediate values, they nevertheless produce productive powers” (List 1995, p34.). This could be an

elucidation to why the energy sector in Cameroon is yet to come out of the energy crisis after writing

down all these laws on paper.

3.5 An overview of renewable energy resources in Cameroon

Before looking at the subject matter of the above mentioned subtopic, it is pertinent to know what

renewable energy is; according to Texas Renewable Energy Industrial Association (TREIA):

“Renewable energy: Any energy resource that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and

derived directly from the sun (such as thermal, photochemical and photoelectric), indirectly from the

sun (such as wind, hydropower and photosynthetic energy stored in biomass), or from natural

movements and mechanisms of the environment (such as geothermal and tidal energy). Renewable

energy does not include energy resources derived from fossil fuel, waste products from fossil sources, or

waste products from inorganic sources.” (Guzowski M and Recalde M, 2010 p 2.)

Simply put, renewable energy is energy obtained from the stock of natural resources which make

available room for steady replenishment within a short time frame. The different forms of renewable

energy are:

26

- Wind energy;

- Ocean energy,

- Solar energy,

- Hybrid energy;

- Hydro energy,

- Geothermal and

- Bioenergy.

Among the R.E types existing in Cameroon are: solar, bio, hydro, wind and geothermal. In this section an

overview will be done on wind, hydro and geothermal while solar and bio potential will be subsequently

be elaborated on.

WIND ENERGY

Wind energy in the past decades was primarily an issue for the developed countries only, but at the

moment this situation is changing slowly. Globally since 2004 there has been an increase in

installed energy capacity from 40.000 MW as at 2003 to 94.000 MW at the end of 2007. In 2010 the

amount of newly installed wind capacity in developing countries and emerging economies were more

than those of the long established wind markets of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and

Development. (European Wind Energy Association, 2009).

Also in Cameroon, the potential of wind energy has started to be recognized. Some favorable sites have

been identified in the north and in some few coastal areas of the country. So far few multi-blade wind

power pumping stations are found in the north of Cameroon. According to (Tansi, 2012),

’meteorological data from NASA reveals that the northern region of Cameroun has an annual wind

speed that is equal to or exceeds 3 m/s for over 80 % of the time and Adamawa region has annual wind

speed that is equal to or exceeds 2 m/s for over 60 % of the time, while the rest of the country has wind

speed greater than or equal to 1 m/s for over 50 % of the time’’.

HYDRO ENERGY

As earlier mentioned, Cameroon's hydroelectric potential remains the second largest in Africa with the

first being Democratic Republic of Congo. There is the 920-km long Sanaga river feeding two

hydropower schemes: Song Loulou (384 MW) and Edéa (264 MW) accounting for 97 percent of the

27

country's hydroelectric power. Cameroon's natural generating potential has been evaluated at 294 TWh

with a capacity of only 13,700 MW able to be developed due to, amongst other things, environmental

factors. (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009). Below is a table of Cameroons hydroelectric potential.

Table 3-2: Cameroons hydroelectric potential.

Catchment Rivers Natural potential

(TWh)

Developable

potential (TWh)

Hydropower

(MW)

Sanaga Sanaga 162 72 5,600

Mbam 1,600

South-West Nyong 17 7 700

Ntem 22 8 1,000

Other catchments 8 3 500

West Wouri (Noun) 10 5 3,300

Katsina 9 5

Manyu, Munaya 6 2

Other catchments 7 2 650

East Dja 13 4

Boumba 8 2

Kadei 5 1

Other catchments 2 1 350

North Bennoue Faro 14 2

Vina du Nord

Mbere

10 2

Other catchments 1 0

Total 294 116 13,700

Source: (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009).

This hydro potential is far from being developed and is not backed up by other renewable energy

sources, thereby exposing the country to a lot of energy crises. This inadequate development of

hydropower is explained by the level of corruption in the country and because AES SONEL, the country s

28

electricity provider (a foreign company-USA) is only interested in profit maximization and capital flight

(Nchichupa, 2011). To buttress the above point, more short term plants are rather put in place, to

increase generating capacity of the two facilities mentioned above, with the construction of the LOM

Pangar storage dam (170 MW) and development of hydroelectric schemes at Nachtigal (280 MW), Song

Dong (280 MW) and Mvembelé (200 MW). In September 2008 augmentation work on the Song Loulou

and Edéa dams was in progress; it will raise capacity of the plants by 75 MW (ibid).

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY.

Geothermal energy is present naturally in the earth’s crust whereby heat as a result of the high

temperature from the core of the earth is stored in water and rocks. The regular flow of high

temperature from the core of the earth to the surface is the major source of this type of energy.

“Molten magma is created beneath the surface crust as a result of heating. Volcanoes, geysers and

fumaroles are the practical evidence of the huge reservoir of heat, which lies within and beneath the

earth’s crust. As the surrounding rock structure is heated by molten magma, when underground water

comes into contact with this heat, geothermal fluid is formed. This energy can be extracted by drilling

wells to tap concentrations of steam at high pressures and at depths shallow enough to be economically

justifiable. The steam is then led by pipes to drive electricity-generating turbines. At an international

level, approximately 8,100 MW of geothermal power is generated, out of a global potential of

60,000MW (Mariita, 2002; Bronicki, 2001)”.

Numerous rewards are attached to the exploitation of geothermal power; among which are, close to

zero emissions. This is true for modern closed cycle systems that re-inject water back to the earth’s crust

(ibid), as compared to other renewable and non-renewable energy sources, geothermal power plant

make use of very little space thereby saving land for other purposes.

Some hot springs have been identified in extensive areas: Ngaoundéré region, Mt Cameroon region and

Manengoumba area with Lake Moundou (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009) but the actual potential for

geothermal energy in Cameroon is unknown.

3.6 An evaluation of Cameroon’s solar potential

Solar energy being renewable, infinite and environmentally friendly records a great portion of the

world’s energy resources. In Cameroon, hydropower and fossil fuels are the major power supplies with

the former being a renewable and the later a non-renewable resource. Both types of energy sources

29

mentioned here are known for certain environmental problems; for instance this non-renewable energy

type creates room for colossal pollution and hydropower on the other hand is known for problems such

as: biodiversity loss, interrupted water flows, loss of water via evaporation, barriers to animals, mercury

leakages from high tension step down transformers among others. Furthermore, reliability of

hydropower for Cameroonian utilization is not only insufficient but also very expensive to set up such a

power plant.

To analyze the solar capacity of a given region and its electricity generating potentials, the quantification

of the solar radiation strength should be obtained. As far back as 1955, the Cameroon national

department of meteorology has kept track of the countries sunshine measurement (Steedman, 1979).

Between 1969 and 1973 in the capital city of Yaoundé, the country’s first ever measurement of solar

radiation were carried out and this was through the help of a pyranometer measured from a horizontal

and skewed surface in (kWh/m²/d) kilowatt-hour per meter square per day, and averaged daily, monthly

or yearly (Ibid). Due to technological evolution over the past years, more reliable means especially NASA

have been adopted to collect the results by use of satellites.

30

The records on Cameroon’s solar potentials by NASA stipulates that the country’s solar potentials is

capable of generating solar energy, that can go higher than average, with Littoral region(Douala)

recording least while northern regions having the most encouraging outcome, and Garoua exceptional

with the maximum level of radiation amounting to 5.75kWh/m²/d, followed by Maroua (Tansi,2011).

The data below gives a picture of annual average solar radiation of 2009 and 2010 in Cameroon.

Figure 3-4: annual average solar radiation of 2009 and 2010 in Cameroon.

Source: (Tansi, 2011)

The position of Africa on the equator gave the continent a golden opportunity to be one of the sunniest

continents on the surface of the earth with an annual mean irradiance of more than 160 watts per

meter square. On daily basis, the least mean radiation stems from about 4kWh/day/m2 around the wet

forest areas to more than 8kWh/m2/day around the Chad desert.

According to NASA, despite Africa’s huge solar power potential, the continent remains the least

electrified in the world of which Cameroon is not an exception.

31

Figure 3.5: The earth at night. Source: NASA

Depicted above is a figure of the earth at night by NASA to explain this situation.

The geographical location of the country (between latitude 20 and 120 north and the meridian 80 and

160 east from the Atlantic Ocean to Chad) offers a huge wealth of solar energy opportunity; ironically

this wealth of solar energy is still in misery of underdevelopment. The least mean radiation around the

cloudy wet forest regions records about 3.5kWh/day/m2 while that of the region next to Chad records

about 5.75kWh/day/m2. Wealth of solar power prospects found in Cameroon ranges from 0 to above

260 meters altitude with an annual rainfall that ranges from 400mm to above 10,000mm. The birth of

inter tropical climate in this country emanates from this situation (Kenfack et al, 2012). On a global

perspective, throughout the year the country is very sunny and the entire 10 regions remain a fertile

ground to invest on solar energy.

32

Figure 3.6: solar mapping in the ten regions of Cameroon.

This favourable condition in place provides Cameroon with a substantial solar resource throughout the

year. But due to maladministration and look-warm attitude of the government, this great potential is

still suffering meanwhile the government still relies on fossil fuel as main source of power. As a result of

the high level of hydroelectric power failure in Cameroon, even in grid connected areas solar energy is

the supposed solution to the country’s energy crisis.

3.7 An evaluation of Cameroon’s biomass potential

Cameroon is ranked the third largest sub Saharan African country when it comes to biomass potential

(Grados and Janssen, 2008). The level of deforestation throughout the country has drastically increased

33

due to unsustainable use of the resources for timber and energy production. Biomass and waste (wood,

sawdust and charcoal) are the primary sources of energy supply to both rural and urban population in

this country, constituting over 63.5% of the total sources of energy use as seen below:

Figure 3.7- sources of energy use in Cameroon

Biomass production in Cameroon has formed part of the informal sector, but there is no proper

organisation in this sector, therefore current knowledge is highly approximate. In 1994 a study was

however conducted on the wood consumption in Yaoundé city and it was discovered that about 2400 to

3600 tonnes of charcoal are supplied yearly to the city and since then there have been an increase in the

amount. The current biomass usage in the country, consisting mainly of traditional biomass points to an

unsustainable way of bioenergy use and management.

“In a study carried out by the Office national de Développement de la Forêt (ONADEF − national forest

development office) in 1989 it was realized that between only 11 and 22 percent, depending on whether

the mill was working for local use or export.. For peeling and slicing units the levels for use of a felled tree

are 23 and 22 percent respectively. In 1990, all over country, there were 61 primary transformation

facilities with a total production capacity of around 1 million m3 of logs per year, breaking down into

sawing (876,000 m), peeling (121,000 m3) and slicing (7,000 m3). On the basis of this data, waste from

wood transformation activities can be estimated to be 800,000 m3 per year, of which around 50 percent

could be used for energy recovery and the other half recycled for carpentry. Some of this waste is

currently used by artisans to produce charcoal but this is limited to facilities close to major towns. Other

sawmills in the country appear to be too far away from the potential markets to be of interest to the

34

charcoal makers. Logging and sawmill wastes are burned and are totally lost. Production of charcoal for

local use in producing gas would be an efficient disposal alternative for logging and sawmill wastes,’

(Ngnikam and Tolole 2009 p, 24).

After forest resources, the second source of biomass in Cameroon is from agricultural by products and

this covers a broad range of crops producing diverse quantities of wastes. A good number of those high

yields producing crops operate on small holdings with few hectares of land. Unlike cotton, cocoa, coffee,

rubber oil palm etc, these holding do not benefit from facilities that are clustered, therefore gathering

sufficient wastes for energy recovery is an expensive venture.

In the agriculture sector of Cameroon, the advantage of agricultural by-products as an energy source is

applicable only to few crops and the amounts of biomass calculated from their productions systems is

seen in table 3-3below.

Table 3-3:Estimated production of biomass with economically recoverable energy, for main crops in

Cameroon.

Source: (Ngnikam and Tolole 2009).

At the moment in Cameroon, there is no commercial production taking place in the sector of biofuel. In

any case, some companies like, Sodecoton, Maiscam, Socapalm, Sosucam,Camaroon Development Co-

operation (CDC)and Ferme Suisse have been involved in few trials of biofuel production . The industrial

production of oil palm in this country have been supported by Governmental programmes and foreign

capitals and the target was to produce 250 000 tons of oil by 2010 on 5 000 ha/year (Soumonni &

Cozzens, 2008). In addition, GREENERY, a non-profit organization is promoting the farming of jatropha

plants across the Northwest region of the country (Binyuy, 2007). From the observation in Cameroon so

far, it seems any biofuel development will be principally oriented to ‘at a spot’ use and not to the

transport sector (Libert, 2007).

35

The massive tropical rain forest endowment (about 45% of land area is under forest cover) makes

Cameroon a hot spot for biomass development. Nonetheless, plantations and small-scale farmers, as

well as timber logging and the use of wood fuel, constitute the main threat. For instance the

government recently allocated about 70,000-hectare to an American agribusiness (Herakles farms) for

oil palm plantation in southwestern Cameroon. Furthermore, some individual are indulge in illegal

logging coupled with numerous companies (foreign) in the country carrying on logging operation , some

of which must have been operating in the country for more than 20 years, among these companies are:

Basso,Bollore,Bruynzeel, Danzer, DLHNordisk, Feldmeyer, Interwood, Pasquet,Rouqier, SAFI, sonea,

Thanry, asto, Legno, wijma,Wonnemann to mention but a few. By 1998, there existed 479 registered

logging companies in Cameroon, up from 177 in 1990 and 106 in1980.This trend is a reflection toward

increased depletion of forest resources of the country (Henriette Bikié,et al,2000).

The quest for biofuel has brought about competition on how the fertile land should be rationed

between food crop and fuel crop production, and this is supposed to be done in a manner that food crop

production should not be jeopardized. About 14 million hectares of land was used worldwide for biofuel

production as at 2006 (IAE2006). Alas some of the leading countries in biofuel production (United State

of America -maize ethanol, Germany – biodiesel) are already short of available land for future feedstock

output (Catula et al 2008). Subsequently to meet up with these demands raw materials will be imported

from countries such as Cameroon with available land for feedstock production. The Stockholm

Environmental institute supply and demand analysis estimated that by 2010 energy consuming nations

will need to import a substantial amount of their biofuel requirements from the developing world (ibid).

The most widely used tool for targeting areas for biofuel feedstock production is land suitability and

availability assessment. Land suitability assessment explains where and why diverse biofuel crops should

be grown in certain areas based on their agronomic potentials on the other hand, land availability talks

about land cover and competing land uses. In assessing the potential of biofuel production in Cameroon,

both suitability and availability dimensions are taken into consideration. In order to identify this area,

we minus (-) the suitable land area with competing uses (for example forested and cultivated land) from

the total suitable land area, the suitable land unclassified as forested or cultivated is usually grass land,

sparse wood land or shrub land, (Fischer et al 2002).

These types of land provides less environmental services compared to forested land and are also under

fewer anthropogenic use than cultivated land, therefore it will be less expensive for such land to be

cultivated for biofuel feedstock in Cameroon.

36

The country has a total land area of about 475.650 km sq, out of which 68,125 km sq is agricultural land

and only 28.9% of these agricultural lands are cultivated at the moment (Pamo E T 2008). With this small

amount of farmland put into use the country still remains the main food supplier to the entire Central

Africa nations, which invariably explains why some portion of the land could be conveniently use for

biofuel feedstock production. The map below explains the areas that could be used for biofuel feedstock

production with little environmental problems.

Figure 3-8: vegetation mapping of Cameroon.

From the above map of Cameroon, it is clear that any agricultural activity especially for commercial

Biofuel production should be done away from dense humid forest areas because of the increasing level

of forest degradation.

37

CHAPTER FOUR: Technological Analysis

4.1 State of the art of solar energy technology in Cameroon

In spite of several efforts by donor organizations and the Government of the Republic of Cameroon to

encourage solar energy technologies for the nation as a whole and for rural energy supply in particular,

access to this energy type especially in rural areas of the country persists to be despondently low.

In Cameroon lots of national rural solar energy approaches are geared towards dissemination of

photovoltaic technology. Considering the fact that the entire national territory is a fertile ground for

solar energy technology, PV systems are doted in the entire ten regions of the country but even with this

the access to modern energy still remains very low and this is apparent in the very awful state of rural

electrification in the country. Among the places where PV systems could commonly be found in the

country are; street lights in few big cities like Douala and Yaoundé local health center, few residential

homes (most high and medium income earners), churches, mosques, prisons, few business enterprises

among others (Lighting Africa, 2012).

So far in Cameroon other solar technology types such as architecture and urban planning, agriculture

and horticulture, transport and reconnaissance , Solar thermal, and daylighting etc are yet to be

developed.

In the agricultural sector, most of the farmers still make use of the traditional solar drying system

whereby crops are spread on the ground exposing it to heat from the sun and wind. Logically the sun

makes provisions for a substantial and unlimited supply of heat to evaporate moist content from the

crop, and the wind velocity takes away the evaporated moisture. At the domestic level majority of the

homes both in urban and rural areas still make use of heat from the sun throughout the year in their day

–to- day domestic drying especially after laundry.

Due to the high cost of PV technology in the country, the expectations that most rural homes will install

PV systems to improve on rural electrification has fallen short of glory, thus for rural electrification

programme to be realised in Cameroon, it will be wise to involve the local people in the setting up and

running of PV systems in their various localities.

4.2 State of the art of bioenergy technology in Cameroon

It has currently been proven by progresses in bioenergy research that, the conversion of biomass to

diverse forms of final energy notably electricity, heat, liquid and gaseous fuels, has very high possibilities

to meet up with energy demand of Cameroon and Africa at large. Among the other types of final energy

38

use, electricity generation remains the most advanced and popular in the world. Modern bioenergy

technology can be set up both in rural and urban areas, but for the sake of cost reduction it is rational to

set it up close to the feedstock for energy generation.

Currently in Cameroon, biomass fuel electricity generation technologies such as bio co-firing, wood fired

plant, biomass gasification, combined cycle etc are not available.

Bio- based refineries responsible for production of huge quantities of Biofuel for commercial purposes is

totally absent as most of these technologies are commonly found in the developed countries. On the

contrary, there is persistent dependence on traditional biomass conversion technologies at very small

scale limited with few wealthy people making use of the modern ones. The dominant bioenergy

technology in Cameroon especially in the southern regions is the production of charcoal which is a

source of livelihood to the rural poor and this is done via traditional earth kiln technology. This

technique is inefficient due to the high energy loss during the kilning process with an energy efficiency

of 20 and 25% (Arnold et al 2003); by implication, huge amounts of wood are transformed into little

amount of charcoal thus making the whole process unsustainable. In other parts of the world metal kilns

have been adopted to increase production efficiency to about 30 to 50%. (ibid)

In terms of briquette sector, this is almost absent despite the huge available feedstock; the technology

that is rather available in this sector is the development of small scale sawdust cook stoves.

Also to note is the fact that in spite of the huge amount of municipal and agricultural waste in the

country, production of biogas via anaerobic digestion or any other method that could help to put an end

to energy poverty is almost totally absent but for the few biogas plants in central and littoral regions.

As mention earlier in the previous chapter, commercial production of biofuels is currently unavailable

in Cameroon, however few isolated experiment have been undertaken in the country by companies

like, Sosucam, Socapalm ,Sodecoton, Ferme Suisse, Maiscam and Cameroon Development

Corporation,(Soumonni & Cozzens, 2008).

On the whole, it is of very high necessity to adopt modern, competent and sustainable bioenergy

technology systems as these will help to improve energy security in both rural and urban areas of the

country.

The table below is taxonomy of suitable regions and feedstock for production of potential biofuel in

Cameroon.

Figure 4-1: taxonomy of suitable regions and feedstock for production of potential biofuel in

Cameroon.

39

Master plan for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon

Generally the process of introducing an innovation is not without complications, so is the case of solar

and bioenergy for rural energy supply in Cameroon. According to Rogers’s diffusion theory, five

innovation attributes are necessary to explain different adoption rates as seen below,

“Relative advantage (this is as in relation to economics, social status, expediency and satisfaction);

Compatibility (constancy with obtainable values, needs and former experiences);

Complexibility (the simpler innovations are perceived, adaptation are more speedy);

Trialability (experimenting new ideas on small scale helps to decrease doubt);

Observability (evident outcome).

(Rogers 1995, pp. 15–16).

In order to succeed in this very difficult but important task in solving the Cameroon energy problem,

participatory innovation methods will be adopted in this chapter

4.3.1 Small scale solar technologies for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon:

In this section I will be looking at two points;

(a) Solar PV’s for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon

Owing to the fact that some rural terrains in Cameroon are actually very rough, the expectation of grid

connection is far- fetched thus small scale solar technologies for short and long term rural energy supply

in Cameroon will be the solution to rural energy supply in the country.

The prices of solar PV in Cameroon are far higher than in other parts of the world, this is due to the high

taxes and transaction cost in the process of installing these PV systems. In order to decrease the cost of

solar PV so as to attain continuous supply of electricity in Cameroon for short and long term, a

participatory framework should be adopted.

40

Figure 4-1 A participatory framework for small scale solar PV for electricity generation in rural

Cameroon.

Own source

As seen in the above figure, for small scale solar PV to be attained in rural areas of Cameroon the rural

inhabitants must be fully involved, aware and support the project. And this can be done by avoiding the

importation of readymade PV systems, thereby creating avenues for it to be assembled in the rural

areas of the country, so that the available local materials and labour will be used; with this in place,

appropriate training (from the assembly to continue repair services) will be acquired by the local

inhabitants.

Technological choices must be very simplified and should be based on realistic consideration (e.g.,

availability and continuity of resources throughout the year, no difficulty of maneuver and maintenance,

41

continuity and access to spare parts and service). Energy utilization, wages and willingness to pay data

should be collected randomly from all segments in the rural area and add into the process of

technology-selection. The training of rural inhabitants, availability of spare parts and continues repair

services will give room for proper delivery mechanisms and local realities must be put into practice.

The design must be cheap, simple and practical to meet the basic electricity need of the rural people

who have been in darkness for ages.

Collaboration with the rural electricity agency will help both rural inhabitants and designers not to put

square pecks in round holes. And the rural people must have full ownership of their PV systems

notwithstanding the fact that they might have had assistant from government or NGO’s. With this in

mind proper follow up will be guaranteed by them and politicians who always want to use liked-

situations to perpetuate themselves in power will stay off the scene.

More exploration for co-financing by international NGO’s should be carried out. Such financial support

sources could be from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, the World

Bank’s Global Environment Facility (GEF), German Organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) Global

Partnership for Output Based Aid (GPOBA) Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) among others.

The government must institute non stringent regulations that will make things easier for business

operation for those participating privately in the PV sector in Cameroon while ensuring adequate

protection of the local consumers at the same time. Since RE technology remains very new for

Cameroonians it will be a good idea to introduce a subject on RE in schools so as to create more

awareness and increase man power in this sector.

(b) Solar thermal for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon

Solar thermal technologies basically exploit solar energy for heat purposes and these solar thermal

collectors have three classifications; among which are: low, medium and high-temperature collectors.

The first class (Low temperature collectors) which are usually flat plates shapes are commonly used for

swimming pools heating. The second class which is my point of concern in this work (medium

temperature collectors) are as well flat shape plates but unlike the first class, these are usually used for

cooking, drying, distillation, heating water or air for residential and commercial use. The third class of

temperature collectors makes use of lenses and mirrors to focus sunlight on them and these are usually

used to generate electricity. Though this is more complex and expensive, nevertheless it is also more

efficient than the PV system. In this section my focus will be on solar cooker, solar dryer and solar

42

distillatory. A breakdown of the cost will be done on one of them while in the others I will just mention

the estimated cost of production so as to avoid repetition of the same procedure.

(i) Solar cooker: there are numerous types of solar cooker design to meet the energy need of different

classes of people all over the world, to meet the energy needs of Cameroonians especially the rural

poor, the following innovations will be adopted; cooKit, and solar box cooker; due to availability of raw

materials, simplicity of technology and least cost of design. The CooKit design is relatively very cheap,

simple and can easily be constructed by both women and children of about 7 years and above. This

technology can also be adopted to meet the energy need of rural Cameroon due to its simplicity. It is

simply a “cardboard panel cooker enclosed with aluminium foil. Sunrays are reflected towards a black

pot which is placed in a thermo-resistant plastic bag. Temperatures from 70 0C to 90 0C (160 F and 200 F)

can be reached. The cardboard is foldable and weighs only 500 g, it is therefore easily stored. If the

CooKit is kept dry and away from termites, the CooKit may last for several years. Considering its

durability, the CooKit seems to be a good investment: the purchase costs are lower than the money

people spend on firewood. A construction manual was published by Solar Cookers International (SCI,

2007c). A CooKit can be made in one or two hours and materials needed are cardboard, aluminium foil

and non-toxic, waterbased glue (SCI, 2007c cited in Toonen 2009)”. The total cost of producing a cooKit

is about 3500 FCFA that is equivalent to 7 US Dollars (being the cost of the above mentioned materials

and labour) and this is within the reach of the poorest Cameroonians.

43

Above is a figure to demonstrate how easy cooKit were constructed by women and children in both

urban and rural area of Chad and same case can be adopted in nearby Cameroon who happened to

share boarder, culture and geographical features with Cameroon

Figure4-3 above:A complete cooKit

Figure 4-2 Construction of cooKit by rural women

44

This cooKit can also be used for pasteurization as it takes just 15 seconds at 710C for a complete

pasteurization to be done. Since most rural and even urban areas in Cameroon still lack access to good

drinking water, this self-effacing heat treatment via solar cooKit can be use to pasteurize water, owing

to the fact that the cooKit can generate temperature more than 710C. “About 90% of microbes are

eliminated within one minute at temperature of 55°C (131°F) for worms, and cysts of the protozoa

Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and Entamoeba; 60°C (140°F) for the bacteria Vibrio cholerae,

Samonellatyphi, Shigella sp, and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, and for rotavirus, a major cause of

infant diarrhea; 65°C (149°F) for Hepatitis-A virus. As the temperature increases above 55°C for

protozoa, or above 60°C for bacteria and rotavirus, the duration required for 90% inactivation decreases

significantly. For example, 90% inactivation of these bacteria at 65°C requires only about 12 seconds,

and 99.999% kill would result from one minute at 65°C. F” (Robert Metcalf, 2013 p5). From the above

citation it will not be an illusion to hastily conclude that cooKit can be a solution not only for cooking but

also for water distillation, especially as a lot of Cameroonians are infected daily as a result of absence of

good drinking water. For instance typhoid fever - bacterial disease commonly spread via contact with

food or water accounts for about 20% of the mortality in Cameroon (CIA World Factbooks, 2013).

Above is a complete cooKit to demonstrate how the locally made solar cooker could help in alleviating

rural energy crises in Cameroon. It should be noted that adoption to new technology takes a while so

also is applicable to changing cooking customs. So therefore the adaptation process of cooKit for rural

energy need in Cameroon demands collaboration from both social scientist and technologists. In the

process of putting these cooKits into daily use, adaptations will pave way for more innovation and

technological improvements by the local people. However, an appreciation of the user wants and

encountered problems will go ahead to increase the rate of adaptation so as to cope with the problem

that must have been encountered with the cooKits. For instance, in an unfavourable condition the user

must understand that longer period will be required for any given meal to be cooked. Solar cookers are

not total replacement of fossil fuel and firewood for cooking but their supplement are very necessary to

reduce the negative environmental, social, economic and health effect of Cameroonians.

To buttress on the above point Wentzel and Pouris are of the view that “technologies refinements of the

CooKit are partial and not total solutions, so therefore solar cookers should be considered as an

integrated part of a cooking package, with specific benefits (Wentzel and Pouris, 2007).

45

For cooKit to be well appreciated by users, local trainers should be recruited in rural areas of Cameroon

to train men, women and children on construction, maintenance and interpretation of the weather

conditions.

Solar box cooker: unlike the cooKit, the solar box cooker is a bit more complex, but can also be

constructed simply by anyone who

can handle a nail and hammer for the

easiest construction work. For an

efficient result of solar box cooker to

be attain in Cameroon a double

reflector transparent insulator

material (TIM) type should be

adopted, this is base on the

experiment carried out in India by

Nahar , it was discovered that a single

reflector is less efficient than a double

reflector . Below is a description of

the design by Nahar “the device is

made up of a dual walled hot box,

with the use of aluminium, the

external and internal boxes are made.

The dimensions of the outer box are

560×560×180 mm3 and of the inner

box are 460×460 m2 at the top and 400×400 mm2 at the bottom, with 80 mm height. In between them is

a gap filled with glass wool insulation and separated by a wooden frame. Blackboard paint is used for

painting internal box. Two clear window glass panes of 4 mm thickness have been fixed over it with a

wooden frame which can be opened. A 40 mm thick TIM (KAPIPANER) honeycomb made of

polycarbonate has been inserted between the two glass panes to minimise convective heat losses. Two 4-

mm thick plane mirror reflectors are fixed over it. These reflectors can be put one over the other on the

cooker and act as a lid. The tilt of the reflector can be varied from 0° (closed lid) to 120° from the

horizontal plane depending upon the season. The absorber area is 0.16 m2. Four cooking utensils of 200-

Figure 4-4 double reflector hot box solar cooker with

TIM

46

mm diameter can be kept inside it for cooking four dishes simultaneously. The overall dimensions of the

cooker are 560×560×230 mm3 and its weight is 20 kg”,(Nahar 2001,p171). For food to be cooked it takes

2 to 3 hours; that is for soft and strong food respectively with an efficiency rate of about 30.5% and

24.5% respectively. The sunshine hours are from 8:00am to 5:00pm depending on the geographical

location of the country and season of the year, it should be noted that the northern parts of the country

has higher sunshine than the others though on the balance, there are about 3000 annual sunshine hours

in the country (Tansi,2011).

Given that the average temperature in the entire ten regions of Cameroon can support this double

reflector hot box solar cooker with TIM, the system can comfortably be used in the entire national

territory throughout the whole year; this is because ‘the temperature does not rise above 110°C when

cooking is carried out. This is below the melting point of 120°C for the polycarbonate honeycomb TIM

used in this cooker. Moreover, the TIM is encapsulated between the two glazings, and there is an airgap

between the absorber and the inner glazing, resulting in the temperature of the inner glazing being

below 110°C’(Nahar,2001). It is also important to note that if a cooker is kept stagnant, under the

temperature of Cameroon, the TIM would automatically melt down, because even during the rainy

season (with lower temperature), stagnation temperatures can be as high as 161°C or more. Hence both

reflectors must be placed over the cooker once a solar cooker with TIM is not in use to avoid solar

radiation to get into the cooker. The cost of this solar cooker in Cameroon amount to about 15500FCFA

which is within the reach of most rural poor in the country. Below is a breakdown of the cost of a

double reflector hot box solar cooker with TIM

47

Table 4-2; a breakdown of the cost of a double reflector hot box solar cooker with TIM

Break down of the cost of a double reflector hot box solar cooker with TIM

Item Quantity Approximate cost (FCFA)

Aluminium sheet (22 gauge)

Glass wool

Plane glass (460x460x4 mm3)

Plane mirror (460x460x4 mm3)

Wood

Plywood

Stainless steel channel

Castor wheel 50 mm

TIM

Miscellaneous handle,

blackboard paint, screws, etc.

Labour charges

1.5 m2

4 kg

2

2

0.02 m3

510x510x4 mm3

460x460x50 mm3

4

460x460x40 mm3

2500

500

850

1650

1600

400

1000

700

3300

500

2500

15500

Total cost 15500. FCFA

Source: adopted from Nahar

Both cooKit and double reflector hot box solar cooker could help to reduce the frequent firewood

collection, thus avoiding the numerous problem (time consuming, health problems, environmental

degradation, etc) that accompany collection and usage of firewood

(ii)Solar dryer: in Cameroon agriculture remains the largest part of the economy and is also known to

have created the highest number of jobs in the country. In spite of these large numbers, most of the

smallholding farmers in the rural areas are still very poor

because greater proportion of their products (perishable) gets

bad even before being taken to the market due to inadequate

preservation and storage system. Sun drying of agricultural

product is the most widely practice in Cameroon and this is

attributed with problems like insect attacks, dust

Figure 4-5seesaw solar dryer.

48

contaminations, micro-organism infection, labour and time intensive- as crop has to be well spread,

covered at night and when it’s raining. Solar dryer can be part of the solution to help rural farmers in

Cameroon come out of their poverty as their crops will be well preserved till when they may possibly be

sold for good prices. In this section I will be looking at a cheap and practical solar dryer for rural farmers

in the country.

There are numerous types of solar dryers in use all over Africa and the world at large but for purpose of

this study I decided to choose the ‘seesaw’ type of solar dryer to be adopted in Cameroon due to its

technological simplicity, least cost, raw materials availability and efficiency. The frame of seesaw dryer is

rectangular with the length thrice that of the width placed on a support with an axis adjusted towards

north-south and its high enough for the frame to be tilted 300 to the east and south in the morning and

afternoon respectively. The trays for drying farm products are made up of about 100 *50 cm wooden

frames and a mesh bottom made up of used materials like old fishing net, bamboo lattice, wire netting

or whichever material that favours utmost evaporation and air circulation. Galvanised corrugated iron

sheets are used at the bottom and re-enforce both length and width wise by wood of about 15-20 cm

high with black paint use for painting the bottom’s upper surface. Insulation plates made up of lignified

wood fibre, corrugated cardboard, polystyrene among other are used for utmost thermal insulation at

the beneath-side of the bottom. The total cost of producing this solar dryer including labour is about

30,000FCFA. For this to be achieved in Cameroon rural trainers should be recruited by the government

ministry of environment, international organization (such as Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

World Nature Organization (WNO) World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) etc), NGO’s, to spread the

knowledge and demonstrate on how to construct and use a simple seesaw solar dryer as demonstrated

here by the University of Zimbabwe. With this in place the rural farmers will be able to preserve their

crops for longer duration so that it could be sold for a good price and this will motivate them to work

harder so as to generate more income.

4.3.2 Small Scale biotechnologies for short and long term rural energy supply in Cameroon

As earlier mentioned, Cameroon is endowed with numerous biological resources but despite all these

the country still suffers from energy epilepsy of which part of the problem can be attributed to lack of

basic technologies in the bioenergy sector. To solve this problem, I will be looking at how small scale

biotechnologies can be adopted in the country.

49

(i) Improved Biofuel cook stoves :In contrast to traditional stove, improve cook stoves ( ICSs) is more

efficient for cooking, less amount of fuel, fuel gathering time, and cooking time required —all these can

help to improve on the health and household income of rural people in Cameroon. Furthermore, local

and global environmental gains will be attained due to the significant decrease in fuel wood fetch and

particulate emissions. In spite of all these indications, innovations in ICSs technologies in Cameroon have

been confronted with dissemination, and implementation challenges. To solve this problem, a system I

termed ‘do it yourselves’ should be implemented in rural areas of Cameroon.

The ‘do it yourselves’ ICSs can easily be made basically from locally available raw materials such as clay,

cow dung and metals. The process can be done by means of finely blending termite mound “clay” and

cow dung with water and mixing the result consistently to

produced bricks. After which the combined components

should be sculptured by hand to produce ICS walls and the

mortar that goes between bricks, and then followed by

suspending metal grate off the ground with a leg on each side

of a brick base, permitting airflow through the biomass that

would be blaze on it. The metallic bars and stove walls are

design such that to the cook pots will be seated above the fire

while buried into the stove opening. In order to avoid direct

contact with smoke by the user, the ICS design must have a

chimney and walls completely surrounding cook pots, thus

closing the combustion compartment and compelling air

to go out from the chimney. The cost of producing ICS in rural

areas of Cameroon amounts to about 3000 FCFA with labour

inclusive and the poor could afford and run this ICS design

with ease.

(ii) Small scale biogas plan for domestic use in Cameroon (from household, agricultural and mini

industrial waste).

The process of biogas digestion in Cameroon is relatively a new phenomenon, for the people to

appreciate this knowledge it is necessary to transform research into practical solution so as to make it

possible for these biogas digesters to be available to the poor who have very low income but abundant

resources -third in Africa (Grados and Jenssen, 2008) that can be use as feedstock for the digesters. The

Figure 4-6 ICS

50

figure below shows the available biogas substrate in Cameroon but the exact quantities are difficult to

be determined as there are inadequate statistics in this sector.

Table 4-3 available biogas substrates in Cameroon.

The warm climate in the entire national territory, favours fermentation process therefore artificial

heating is not necessary, due to the fact that biogas installations are by and large supported by (<20°C)

psychrophilic or (30-42°C) mesophilic anaerobic digestion. Among the 3 types that could be suitable for

Cameroon are: floating drum, flexible balloon, and fixed dome. Nevertheless the choice of the design is

determine by certain factors; for instance if the cost is high, poor rural dwellers will be unable to venture

into it; if it is not robust enough and difficult to repair, users will not enjoy the benefit at long term. If

also very cheap like the flexible balloon (30-100 US$), but damages easily then is a waste of resources.

Source: Akinbami J et al (2001)

51

Among fixed dome and floating digesters the later remain more costly (700-1200 US$), on the other

hand both are more robust. For the purpose of this thesis I will be looking at fixed dome digesters due to

the fact that these types are more robust as they don’t make use of moving parts and can be

constructed from available local materials which invariably reduce the cost of construction.

Fixed dome digester: the absence of no moving parts makes this design simple and the plant can last for

20 years and more as there are no rusting parts. Its construction must be underground; this helps to

save space and preventing it from physical harm. It should be noted that during periods of low

temperature, underground digester is well protected meanwhile periods of high temperature requires

more time for the digester to be heated. Local employment can be created in Cameroon since the

construction is labour intensive. Though construction of fixed-domed may appear simple but for the

sake of safety and reliability experienced biogas technicians should be recruited in the entire 10 regions

of country to train local people and supervise the construction of fixed-domed plants from the beginning

to end.

Function: this plant consists of a ‘compensation tank’ (closed dome-shaped digester amid a fixed, rigid

gas-holder and a displacement pit). ‘The gas is stockpile in the upper sector of the digester. At the start

of gas production, slurry is evacuated into the compensating tank. With the increase in quantity of gas

stored gas pressure is bound to rise, i.e. with the height variation between the two slurry levels. The

reverse is the case (low gas pressure) if there is little gas in the gasholder,’ (Thomas Hoerz et al).

Figure: 4.7 Fixed dome plant Nicarao design: 1. Mixing tank with inlet pipe and sand trap. 2. Digester. 3.

Compensation and removal tank. 4. Gasholder. 5. Gaspipe. 6. Entry hatch,with gastight seal. 7.

52

Accumulation of thick sludge. 8. Outlet pipe. 9. Reference level. 10.Supernatant scum, broken up by

varying level.

Source: TBW.

Digester: these are more often than not masonry structures and the principal considerations for the

material choice are as follows: technological appropriateness (stability, gas- and liquid tightness), cost-

effectiveness, transport costs, local skills availability for working with masonry. Fixed dome plants

produce just as much gas as floating-drum plants, if they are gas-tight. However, utilization of the gas is

less effective as the gas pressure fluctuates substantially. Burners and other simple appliances cannot be

set in an optimal way. If the gas is required at constant pressure (e.g., for engines), a gas pressure

regulator or a floating gas-holder is necessary (ibid).

Gas-Holder: the gas space which happens to be the top part of a fixed-dome plant must be real gas-

tight. ‘Concrete, masonry and cement rendering are not

gas-tight. The gas space must therefore be painted with a

gas-tight layer (e.g. ’Water-proofer’, Latex or synthetic

paints). A possibility to reduce the risk of cracking of the

gas-holder consists in the construction of a weak-ring in

the masonry of the digester. This "ring" is a flexible joint

between the lower (water-proof) and the upper (gas-

proof) part of the hemispherical structure. It prevents

cracks that develop due to the hydrostatic pressure in the

lower parts to move into the upper parts of the gas-holder’ (ibid). If this system can be instituted in both

the urban and rural household of Cameroon, the livelihoods might be improve and long term

sustainability of ecosystem services will be attained couple with substantial benefits to the energy

sector, hence ameliorating the county’s energy crises.

(c) Innovative biogas using human waste (pit latrine integrated system): The pit latrine integrated

system can make use of small scale household biogas digesters. This technology treats human waste on-

site, hence making it possible for human faeces and kitchen waste to be a potential resource for

household energy generation of the rural poor in Cameroon. Pit latrines, which are major sources of

methane and pathogen spread in the country should be replace by digesters as the central treatment

technology for human waste in rural areas of Cameroon, thereby reducing the level of pathogen spread.

Figure4-8 .The final layers of the masonry

structure of a Fixed-dome plant. gtz/GATE

53

Biogas can be produce by anaerobic decomposition of these organic wastes (human faeces and kitchen

waste) in these digesters which can be capture and use as a source of RE for cooking and lighting rural

areas of Cameroon, this can be

realize by channeling human faeces

from pit latrines to household

digesters, and afterward the

methane captured will be use as RE

source for rural household in the

country. This will help to reduce the

rate of firewood and charcoal usage

for cooking thereby reducing the

rate of forest destruction and

provides a clean and healthy source

of energy to the rural people of

Cameroon which will invariably

increase their quality of life.

Furthermore, it could also be use

for lighting home, in so doing, the use of kerosene lamps which are not only expensive to use, but which

also causes pollution will be bypass. In a typical rural setting in Cameroon the average number of

persons per house hold are about 7 with about 5 to 7 houses making use of one pit latrine, which makes

it possible for enough feed stuck to run a small household biogas digester to be generated. For proper

operation of this system in rural areas of Cameroon, human excreta, kitchen and animal waste free from

detergents should be use as feed stock for the biogas digester as this will help boost the process of

anaerobic digestion via microbiological activities in the absence of air and considerable elevated

temperature. In this design, manual handling of the excreta is bypass and the feed stock must maintain a

hydraulic retention time of 30 days. In a day, a person’s excreta produces 1cft (cubic feet) of biogas with

a biogas base content of 65-66% methane, 32-34% carbon dioxide and 1 percent hydrogen sulphide with

some trace amount of ammonia and nitrogen, (Daniel Buxton & Brian Reed, 2010). Therefore taking an

average of 6 houses with 7 person per household as is applicable in rural areas of Cameroon = 42cft per

day excluding kitchen and other biodegradable waste.

1 cft = 0.028316847 m3 of biogas

Figure 4-9insitu biogas system to replace pit latrine in Cameroon. Source: Reed and Shaw in Daniel Buxton & Brian Reed

54

Therefore 0.028316847*42 =1.189307557 m3 of biogas

Given that 1 cubic meter (m3) of biogas contains an equivalent of 6 kWh of calorific energy.

If biogas is converted to electricity, via biogas powered electric generator, about 2 kWh of useable

electricity is obtainable, the rest is converted into heat which can also be utilized for heating

applications.

With 2 kWh, 100 W light bulbs for 20 hours or a 2000W electrical appliance for 1 hour can be powered.

The above calculation explains that the number of persons per household in Cameroon is good enough

to generate faeces to run a small scale biogas plant (ibid).

With the aid of liquid displacement chamber, biogas will be stored inside the plant till when it will be

required for household use. The use of reinforcement concrete to build the plants makes it possible for

little or no maintenance at long run thus making it possible for this technology to be implemented in the

country.

(d) Innovative Briquette technology for Cameroon.

As earlier mentioned, Cameroon has the third biomass potential in Africa (Grados and Jenssen, 2008),

this makes enormous amount of biomass residues to be generated annually in the

country as by-products of the commercial, non- commercial forestry, agricultural and industrial sectors.

For instance though there are no accurate statistics on the actual amount of biological waste generated

in the country, it should be noted that waste from wood transformation activities was estimated to be

800,000 m3 per year, as from 1990 and since then the amount has been increasing due to high demand

for wood products. These wastes could be used for energy recovery via briquetting instead of setting it

ablaze as is applicable in Cameroon (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009).

Briquettes are made from carbonized biomass, or compacted biomass that is afterward

carbonized. Despite the obvious rewards of charcoal briquettes such as low cost, burn time,

environmentally sustainable and potential for product standardization, their utilization as a substitute

for wood charcoal in Cameroon remains very limited.

There are so many types of briquette technology designed to meet the energy needs in different

countries of the world. In the case of poor rural dwellers in Cameroon I strongly recommend the

wooden manual press which is durable, cheap and easy to construct. The materials used to construct

the wooden press briquette press are: 5 pieces of wood (1.5m long and 2*6cm wide), 2 pieces of wood

55

(.5m long and 2*6cm wide) and some few nails and screws which amounts to about 8000Frs CFA for cost

of producing the wooden manual briquette machine which is quite affordable to the poor in Cameroon.

Figure 4-10: wooden manual press briquette machine .

The process of briquette production:

Basically the process is easy, though there are slight variations in the details depending on what types

of wastes used.

Step 1: carefully sort out the wastes to be put into the briquette – this must be within the range of

municipal processing waste and agricultural residues,

Step 2: finely chop up the wastes and let the agricultural residues be kept until it’s partially

decomposed,

Step 3: blend the waste to the extent that it becomes soupy slurry in water,

Step 4: compress the slurry into the porous cylindrical mould to produce hollow round cylinders or

briquettes

Step 5: Dry up the briquettes to eliminate the moisture content before use.

56

“A team of 6 persons using the above manual briquette press can meet up to the energy demands of a

local market of 50 families per day. On daily basis, this activity could produce about (5000 FCFA) per

worker while creating avenues for sustainable and efficient fuel at 10% to 20% less cost than fuelwood.

In meeting up with energy needs of 50 families, a 6 person’s team press group could trim down

fuelwood demand by 125 tons per year. In the case where wood is used to produce charcoal, making

available biomass fuel briquettes for 50 families would reduce the fuelwood demand by about twice this

amount” (Legacy Foundation). With this above scenario in place especially in the rural areas of

Cameroon a substantial amount of energy crisis will possibly be solved, cleaner and cheaper energy for

household would be always available and jobs will be created, thus paving way for poverty alleviation in

the country.

(e)Innovative Biofuel production from African bush mango (Irvingia)

The African bush mangos are commonly found in the forest regions of Cameroon. Basically there are

two known indigenous species of irvingia in the country; (Irvingia gabonensis) which has fragrant, juicy

flesh and sweet juice commonly harvested during the rainy seasons and (Irvingia wombulu) which is

smaller in size, bitter taste and commonly harvested during the dry seasons. The utilization of the

Irvingia species in the country poses no problem as its fruits are collected when plants are mature and it

is widely cultivated as well as grown naturally in the wild (Tchoundjeu et at 2005). The seed of irvingia is

broadly used in diverse ways that is not within the scope of this study .My focus here is to look at how

the fleshy part (pericarp- comprise of the endocarp, mesocarp and exocarp) which is actually a waste

product, could possibly be use for small scale energy generation in Cameroon.

In a study carried out by Ewane et al (2009), it was discovered that the villages in South West Region of

Cameroon produced above 75 tonnes of irvingia seeds in 2008 and since this sector is very profitable

that amount has been on a constant increase since then. With this figure in place an extrapolation can

be done in the other tropical forest regions of the country. Considering the fact that the mass of the

pericarp of irvingia is about 10 times that of the seeds, therefore the waste produced in Villages of the

South West Region in that same year was above 750 tonnes excluding those that get rotten in the forest

which are unaccounted for. Below is a figure of the seeds and fruit of Irvingia so as to make out the

difference in size.

57

Figure 4-11seeds and complete fruit of irvingia.

A laboratory analysis of the Cameroonian irvingian species was carried out at the department of

Bioenergy and Green Engineering – Aalborg University, Esbjerg and the following results were obtained

as seen below.

Average macromolecular composition of the African bush mango samples (3 runs) on a dry weight basis:

Total Carbohydrates: 29%

Fermentable sugars: 20%

Lipids: 24%

Proteins: 8%

The fermentable sugars fractions are the biomass content that can be directly converted to ethanol

without any major pre-treatment. And this can be

extracted mechanically by use of a simple locally

made manual press. This press can be conveniently

operated by two people and takes in about 25kg of

bush mango at once. The extracted liquid content of

the bush mango will be distilled locally to produce

bioethanol, (the process of distillation is left out here

so as to narrow the work). Though the local people in

Cameroon have a crude means of distillation (will also

be excluded here), the government should provide

Figure 4-12 locally made manual press

58

means for up- to- date small scale distillatory for the rural dwellers because this technology type is more

complex and expensive than all the others mentioned above. The solid residue from the bush mango

could also be dried up and subsequently be used for incineration for further distillation or other heating

purposes (both for drying farm products and household cooking). This bioethanol could be used for

cooking especially as there are lots of stoves designed to use bioethanol and could also be used to run

small household bioethanol generators thus providing employment, clean energy and improving the

quality of life of the rural Cameroonians, and in the long run ameliorating the country’s energy crisis.

59

CHAPTER FIVE: Benefits and Challenges of Solar and Bioenergy in Cameroon.

5.1 Economic costs and benefits of solar and bioenergy in Cameroon

“The fate of people on Earth depends on whether we can employ efficient and renewable energies. We

need to lay big plans for small technologies.” — David Freeman, speaking at

the World Renewable Energy Congress in June 1996 P 7, (cited in Pahl G, 2012)

In contrast with non-renewable technologies, which are usually capital intensive and highly mechanized,

renewable energy technologies are more labour-intensive (UCS, 2009). By implication it is obvious that,

for each electricity unit generated more jobs are created from renewable energy sources than from non-

renewable sources. In a report by the Centre for Energy efficiency and Renewable Technologies (2009) it

was confirmed that RE technologies create more employments than their fossil fuel counterpart in

equivalent level. Even though there are variations in the job impact at diverse levels - depending on

specific technologies, the general rule of thumb stipulate that RE generates 4 to 6 times more jobs per

MW than natural gas or coal power supply. For instance while natural gas may create just one job per

MW from construction operation and maintenance stages, solar power and bioenergy technologies will

generate about seven and ten jobs respectively per MW .(ibid).

Thousands of jobs are already supported by renewable energy in the Cameroon. For example, from the

1960’s till date the agricultural sector has maintained the highest number of employees in the country

in diverse capacities, including farm labourers, manufacturing, project development, construction of

farm to market and farm to industry roads, operations and maintenance, logistics and transport,

financial, legal, and consulting services . More than 150 factories in the Cameroon deal with forestry and

agricultural product which generates abundant feedstock that can be used for energy production, this

sector recorded a 5 % growth in the nation’s economy in 2012 (African Economic Outlook, 2012)

Though solar energy is relatively new in Cameroon, the solar industry has been noted for a substantial

increase in the number of employees. The actual number of employees in this sector is difficult to

determine due to the informal operation of the sector, nevertheless approximately above 1,000

employees are likely to be employed in the entire 10 regions of the country; including jobs in solar panel

construction, installation and sales. The deceleration in European economic activities could result to

lesser external demand in the medium term, since the European Union is Cameroon’s major business

60

associate (NABC, 2011). To maintain this relationship, the country will continue escalating agricultural

production and consolidating the solar and bioenergy supply needed to sustain growth.

It will not be a misleading notion to say that solar and bioenergy have the potential of creating more

jobs in Cameroon. To support the above fact the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2009 performed an

economic benefits analysis of a 25% RE standard by 2025; and the result states that ‘such a policy would

create more than three times as many jobs as producing an equivalent amount of electricity from fossil

fuels—resulting in a benefit of 202,000 new jobs in 2025', (UCS. 2009, p.1)

Apart from direct jobs creation in the RE sector, expansion in this sector especially in an undeveloped

economy like that of Cameroon may likely pave way for positive economic ripple effects. For instance,

businesses in the supply chain in RE probable will benefit, and nonrelated local businesses may also

flourish due to increased household and business incomes.

Furthermore, continuous expansion of RE may possibly offer several significant economic development

benefits. For instance rural councils in the country could generate more income by collecting land tax,

property tax, income taxes to mention but a few from renewable energy project owners. These

revenues can be used for infrastructural development, especially in rural communities where the level

of basic amenities is still very low. Owners of land where RE projects are developed may be entitled to

certain royalties also, new sources of supplemental income can be generated by rural farmers through

biomass feedstock’s production for energy facilities.

In a research carried out by UCS (2009), it was realised that ‘by the year 2025, the renewable electricity

standard would stimulate, $13.5 billion in new landowner income biomass production and lease

payments, and $11.5 billion in new property tax revenue for local communities’, (ibid, p 1).

If properly managed solar and bioenergy projects may perhaps help prevent capital flight thereby

maintaining circulation of money within the economy of the country, and the production of these RE

types would possibly reduce the amount of money spent on coal and natural gas importation. For

instance in 2010 the government of Cameroon spent $276 million to subsidise imported fossil fuel prices

(Dow Jones, 2010).

With the enormous solar and bioenergy potential earlier identified, renewable energy technologies may

possibly provide affordable energy across the ten regions of the country, and can also help in future

energy price stabilization.

61

The past few years have witnessed steady decline in the costs of renewable energy technologies, and as

research continues in this domain, more projections are made for further reduction in cost especially as

RE is gradually entering large scale production. For example, since 2011 solar panel has witnessed an

average drop of almost 60 percent in price (Wirth 2013). This drop in price of solar panel emanates from

high level of technological changes, benefit of economic of scale (mass production) and market

competition (IEA, 2011). As this levelised cost of solar energy continues to increase the dominant fossil

fuel is bound to face severe threads in the years ahead (ibid). Below is a chat to show how the price of

solar PV has decline over the years.

Figure 5-1 chat of decline in PV price

Though some renewable facilities require upfront investments to build, others as is applicable in this

work are very simple and cheap, once constructed their operation cost are very low and, the fuel for

some technologies, is either very cheap or even free of charge. This could be a good explanation to why

prices of renewable energy are relatively stable over time. In a study of the economic benefits analysis

of a 25 percent renewable electricity standard by UCS, it was established that such a policy would result

to 4.1 % lower natural gas prices and 7.6 %lower electricity prices by 2030 (UCS 2009).

On the other hand, variation in the prices of fossil fuel can be so dramatic and are liable to substantial

fluctuation in prices. A good example was the speedy increase in the prices of coal in Cameroon due to

62

escalating global demand before 2008, and then followed by a rapid fall after 2008 as soon as global

demands declined. Similarly, prices of natural gas have fluctuated greatly in Cameroon since 2000. In a

policy paper by the World Bank (2008),it was concluded that the global increase in price of food crops

results from the fact that food crops are used for biofuel production (food/fuel competition). As earlier

mentioned in this work, the poor Cameroonians whose sources of income are from subsistence farming

will perhaps feel the greatest pinch of high food price if food crops are to be used for biofuel production

in Cameroon.

It is obvious that every form of technology generates some amount of wastes in their entire life circle,

but in the case of small scale solar and bioenergy technologies treated in chapter four, the generated

waste are negligible because these waste might post little or no harm to the environment and moreover

greater percentage of these wastes might be converted into other uses. For instance, waste from small

scale biogas plant and innovative African bush mango could be use as farm manure and incineration

respectively. Furthermore, wastes from cooKit and solar dryer could also be used for drying small farm

products and for cooking respectively.

Due to the low cost and simplicity of some of these technology types in chapter four, it is expected that

everyone is likely to have access to the technology and if properly managed they would be expected to

reap maximum benefits from these technology types.

5.2 Environmental benefits of solar and bioenergy to Cameroon

The reality and risk of environmental degradation have been very glaring in the last two decades. The

world’s environmental problems could be attributed to a combination of causes such as the rapid

growth in human population, consumption pattern, and industrial activities among others (Nagdeve

Dewaram A, 2007).

During the 1970’s environmental and legal control instruments focused mainly on such conventional

pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitride oxide, meanwhile of late these concerns

encompasses both micro and macro hazardous pollutants because they both have short and long term

health and environmental adverse effects. In the transport sector; mostly run by fossil fuel, there have

been significant increase in the number of road, rail, water and air transport thus increasing the concern

of the sources and effect of emitting nitride oxide and volatile organic compound (VOC), (Dincer Ibrahim

1999)

63

Environmental problems as earlier mentioned are so diverse stemming from persistently increasing

range of pollutants, hazards and degradation of the ecological systems over broad areas. Below are

major classifications of environmental problems:

. Key environmental accidents

. Water pollution

. Marine pollution

. Acid rain

. Impact of Land use sitting

. Radioactivity and radiation

.Ambient air quality

. Disposal of solid waste

. Hazardous air pollutants

. Stratospheric ozone depletion, and

. Global climate change (greenhouse effect).

Though these environmental problems are many, those with prime international attention are

stratospheric ozone depletion, global climate change and acid precipitation (Dincer Ibrahim 1999). For

purpose of this work the scope in this section will be limited to the effect of greenhouse gas emission in

Cameroon.

5.2.1 Greenhouse gas emission in Cameroon.

As at the year 2005 the following amount of greenhouse gas emission were recorded in the country by

the World Resources Institute (WRI); 7434.8, thousand metric tons of Carbon monoxide, 6,797 thousand

metric tons of carbon dioxide and 351.8 metric tons of nitrogen oxides (WRI,2005). A summary of other

emissions from diverse sources in the country has been presented in the table below:

64

Table 5-1: GHG emission rates in Cameroon

Emission

Amount (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)

1990 2000 2005

Carbon monoxide (CO) 3,803.6 7,434.8 -

Carbon dioxide (CO2) 2,982 6,774.0 6,797

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) 180.2 351.8 -

Non-methane VOC 449.9 725.4 -

Sulfur dioxide 46,4 174.4 -

Non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions: Fluorinated

gases

656,4 2,274.0 -

Non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions: Methane 10,505.1 14,968.9 -

Non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions: Nitrous oxide 8,285.5 11,819.3 -

Source: WRI, 2005

A year later an annual average of 3,645 thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide emission was also

recorded in the Cameroon (WRI 2006). Even though this value falls below 1% of the global total, close

observation reveals that it has increase over the years. If necessary precautions are not put in place,

given the increased in population, deforestation, energy demand (especially the recent petroleum

exploration in the Bakassi peninsular of the country), this value might increase twice or more within the

next 10 to 20 years thereby increasing the rate of environmental problems in the country (Tansi, 2011).

Each RE type has a number of unique benefits and costs; these few lines explore some environmental

benefits associated with solar and bioenergy technologies in Cameroon.

5.2.2. Little or No Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The atmosphere as seen above has been overloaded with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases

due to human activities, which, steadily increase the world’s temperature, and creates significant

adverse effects on human health, environment, and climate.

The transport sector and industries accounts for more than one-third of Cameroons greenhouse gas

emissions, the natural gas-fired power plants doted in the entire ten regions of the country accounts for

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about 4 percent of total emissions. In contrast, if solar and bioenergy were to be implemented

rationally, the level of greenhouse gas emissions will be insignificant (Tansi, 2011).

In a study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on the ‘life-cycle global warming

emissions associated with RE’, beginning from manufacturing, installation, operation, maintenance,

dismantling and decommissioning , it was discovered according to the aggregated data that RE have

minimal adverse environmental effects. For instance in contrast with natural gas, which emitting rate is

between 0.6 and 2 pounds of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt-hour (CO2E/kWh), and coal, which emits

between 1.4 and 3.6 pounds of CO2E/kWh, solar emits 0.07 to 0.2, and biomass have an extensive range

of greenhouse emissions depending on the type of resource used and if it was harvested sustainably.

Biomass from a sustainable source has low emissions footprint, whereas that from unsustainable

sources can generate significant environmental problems almost like fossil fuels (IPCC 2011). The figure

below throws more light on the above explanation.

Figure 5-2 chat to showing the level of GHG emission from both RE and non-RE resources

Source :( IPCC, 2011)

If the supply of RE in Cameroon is increased, it would pave way for replacement of carbon-intensive

energy sources hence considerably reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Another study by

the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2009), explored the viability

and environmental effects linked with producing 80% of the global electricity from renewable sources by

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2050 and established that greenhouse gas emissions from electricity production could be reduced by

approximately 81% (UCS 2009)

5.2.3 Improved Environmental Quality and Public Health

Electricity generation from RE rather than fossil fuels proffers vital public health benefits. The air, land

and water pollution associated with coal and natural gas plants which causes neurological damage,

breathing problems, heart attacks, and cancer are bypassed if we replace fossil fuels with RE. It has also

been discovered that RE reduces the risk of premature death and overall healthcare costs. An estimated

aggregate economic impact linked with these health impacts of fossil fuels is between 2.5 percent and 6

percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) (UCS 2009).

There is little or no associated air pollution link to electricity generation from solar energy systems and

in the case of biomass energy systems some air pollutants are emitted, but averagely the total emissions

are generally far lesser than those of coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.

Furthermore, solar energy does not make use of water for its operation hence leaving the water

resources unpolluted and does not strain the water supply for agriculture, drinking and other important

water needs (ibid). On the other hand, fossil fuels do have significant adverse impact on water

resources. For example, natural gas drilling around the coastal regions of Cameroon has been associated

with the major cause of water pollution around these regions (CSIR Environmentek, 2004). Extraction of

natural gas by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) demands huge quantity of water and every single thermal

power plant, not excluding coal, gas, and oil powered plants, take out and consume water for

cooling. To a greater extent huge biomass power plants are also victims of this same circumstance as the

coal and natural gas power plants, but the small scale bioenergy systems as is applicable in this work are

exempted from this problem because their level of simplicity has insignificant environmental problems if

properly managed (UCS,2009).

At the moment, solar and bioenergy supplies only a tiny proportion of its potential electricity output in

Cameroon. These energy types can actually be deployed to provide substantial amount of the country’s

electricity needs with minimal environmental problems, even after taking into account the potential

constraints.

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5.3 Obstacles and Barriers of Solar and Bioenergy Development in Cameroon

The unexploited potential of renewable energy in Cameroon is capable of meeting the country’s energy

needs, but sadly this has fallen short of expectation. While it is generally accepted that solar and

bioenergy cannot solve all of Cameroon’s energy problems, these energy types are still known for having

an enormous unexploited potential to enable the country’s growing energy needs to be met. In spite of

its significance, renewable energy is yet to attract the required investment level, even though some

substantial amount may have been allocated by local and international agencies to develop, adapt and

disseminate RETs ever since 1990’s, in totality it is still insignificant when compared to the amount

allocated to the natural gas sector of the country. Among the factors responsible for poor

implementation of renewable energy developments in Cameroon are: inadequate renewable energy

planning policies; poor infrastructure and institutional framework; inadequate harmonization in

renewable energy programmes; very high initial capital cost; meagre baseline information and poor

maintenance services. In this section four major barriers to the adoption of solar and bioenergy in

Cameroon will be considered, among them are: policy, financial, technical and social barriers

5.3.1 Policy Barriers

The existing government policy to a greater extent is bound to affect the implementation of renewable

energy in any given country. For the case of Cameroon the 1990 national energy plan which integrates

renewable energies was never entrenched nor revised in spite of the numerous energy crises faced by

the country, rather the renewable energy policy laid more emphasis on hydroelectricity to the detriment

of solar and biomass resources. Furthermore the policy placed more emphasis on supplying energy to

the urban area thereby neglecting the low income rural population (Encyclopedia of Nations, 2009).

In fact the government of Cameroon has created a vacuum in the renewable energy sector as there is no

clear- cut policy on the operation in this sector thereby allowing no clear link to the already poor

national master plan. It is no surprise that Cameroonians have no knowledge of government policy

intending to promote renewable energy development (Ngnikam and Tolole, 2009).

According to Wolde-Ghiorgis (2002), renewable energy development’s inadequate policy support is

further confirmed by the low budgetary allocations to renewables in most African countries. In

Cameroon more importance is attached to petroleum thereby neglecting solar and bioenergy which

could supply a greater segment of the Cameroonians basic energy needs.

With the present energy policy of Cameroon, the budget allocated to small and medium scale RET’s

remains very little when compared to that of conventional energy sector and hydroelectricity. Though

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hydroelectricity is a RE source and the main electricity supply of the country but it may never meet up

with the electricity needs of rural Cameroonians due to high cost of grid connection and rough terrain of

some parts of the country as mentioned earlier. For instance in Cameroon’s energy sector the

investment trends disclose heavy investments in the hydroelectricity and petroleum sub-sectors. As

seen in the figure below, the amount invested in natural gas quadrupled from 1990-2000, while that of

hydroelectricity was roughly tripled within the same period. Contrary to petroleum and hydroelectricity

mentioned above, expenditure on RETs (small and medium scale solar and bioenergy) has steadily

decline from about 1percent of entire expenditure in 1990, to 0.1percent of entire expenditure in the

year 2000 (Wolde-Ghiorgis, 2002 cited in Karekezi et al 2003).

Figure of Cameroon’s Energy sector capital budget shares percentage and total budget shares in million

FCFA, 1990-2000

Figure 5-3 Energy sector capital budget shares percentage and total budget shares in million FCFA,

1990-2000

Source: (adopted from Wolde-Ghiorgis, 2002)

From this presentation above one could easily conclude that the Public Investments Plan for Cameroon,

which indicates the government priority projects for funding, did not take RETs into prime consideration

as per the investment projects in the country’s energy sector portfolio.

5.3.2 Economic Barriers

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The economic factor plays a major role in influencing the decision of the rural dwellers in Cameroon to

adopt new types of solar and bioenergy systems to meet their energy requirements. The average rural

household in the country is solely dependent on subsistence farming, therefore it is not economically

viable to afford even the investment capital, solar and bioenergy plants can therefore be acquired only

by those who are wealthy (eg, politicians, senior civil servants, senior agrofuel farmers, etc). Most at

times the technical feasibility of solar and bioenergy projects are without questions but the drawback

remains the absence of low cost financing for a long period of time. In a country like Cameroon

operating under unfavourable macro-economic conditions, the problem becomes so complex. Majority

of the less privileged Cameroon populations with national poverty levels of 50-70% are unable to afford

highly developed renewable energy technologies (World Bank, 2001). This particularly is factual for

renewable technologies with high prices of imported components, as compared to those manufactured

using the available local components at their disposal. Expensive renewable energy technologies with

high cost of imported components results in extra load on foreign exchange reserves of the country,

which are often very small and approaching collapse, and need expensive financing schemes and huge

subsidies (Karekezi and Kithyoma, 2002).

The loan requirements especially by community and commercial banking institutions in Cameroon do

not favour RETs financing. Their conditions for RETs investors are usually very stringent and this

discourages potential users. For example, owing to the banks limited knowledge on RE the applicant

must conduct a feasibility study at his or her own cost. Furthermore, collateral such as land titles,

portfolios of project sponsors and managers, information on past and current operation, estimated

value of existing investment, a valuation report, raw material procurement plans, and the marketing

strategy for the finished products are required by the banks (Karekezi et al 2003).

In situations where finances are made available for end users, these are over and over again not within

the reach of the poor who makes up bulk of the population but rather the affluent do benefit. In a study

on; ‘Using small-scale solar power plant to supply rural homes with electricity in the Ngan-ha locality of

Adamaoua Region of Cameroon’ about 70% of the rural people were unable to pay the solar service fee

(even though it was far cheaper than the AES-SONEL charges), while the issue of loan was out of

question. In addition, some corrupt administrative authorities vehemently refuse to pay their electricity

bills (Dieudonné and Evariste, 2011).

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5.3.3Technical Barrier

Introducing new technologies such as solar and bioenergy system calls for the development of technical

skills. In Cameroon the introduction of renewable energy technology is pretty new and unfamiliar

concept and this explains why qualified personnel are deficient. In order to build a sustainable energy

system Cameroonians should be provided with the technical know-how because this is a prerequisite for

successful dissemination. For the country to have a long term mass of professionals in the RET sector,

technical knowledge is very important in order to manage the process and ensure effective utilization of

these resources (World Bank, 1991). It is no doubt that the Cameroonian government at the moment

suffers from severe shortage of personnel in the renewable energy sector and little or no efforts are

made to improve on the situation (Kenfack et al 2011). So many mini renewable energy projects have

been successfully instituted in the capital city of Yaoundé, regional capitals and rural areas but due to

nonexistence of trained personnel most of them ended up as abandoned projects (ibid).

This situation of inadequate technical expertise is seen both in the formal and informal sectors, but the

later situation presents a greater challenge, as technical skills are mainly mechanical. Hence, artisans in

the informal sector find it more complicated to grasp electrical technologies to a bulk of end users,

particularly in rural areas of the country. To a greater extent, this may be an explanation for the low

uptake of electrical RETs such as solar PV in the rural areas of Cameroon. Since these technologies are

somewhat complex, the rural dwellers rely on expatriates and individuals based mostly in far urban

centres and the departure of these few experts more often results to the RET projects downfall. So

therefore the level of technical expertise in Cameroon should be a prerequisite for implementing RETs.

5.3.4 Social Cultural Barrier

Socio–cultural issues and adamant to change especially when it has to do with strange technologies (no

matter their simplicity), are possible obstacles to solar and bioenergy technologies adoption and

dissemination in Cameroon. Even after educating the people on the possible means of reducing their

household energy expenses by means of simple RETs, they remained adamant to change (Adegbulugbe

and Akinbami, 1995). The principal reasons for unyielding to change could be attributed to the fright of

discarding the already familiar technologies for the unfamiliar (thus holding on to the age-long adage:

“it’s good to deal with the devil that is known than an angel that is unknown”), fear of the possible

dangers inherent in the use of RET (especially the case of biogas accident), the belief by the local

71

villagers that using fuelwood for cooking makes the food to taste better and that certain species of

fuelwood must be used for cooking so as to give the food medicinal value and also to appease the gods

at given periods of the year.

The illiteracy rate in the rural areas of Cameroon is still higher as compared to the urban centers and this

is a hindrance to information dissemination which has a great role to play in decision making. Another

hindrance to information dissemination in the RETs sector is the exclusion of rural women in the

decision making process, meanwhile women are the major consumers of basic energy needs especially

for cooking. Given that a RET plant is constructed in the rural part of the country, in case of

malfunctioning of a plant they (women) feel the highest pinch (ibid).

Additionally, in the area of biogas technology in Cameroon, in order to benefit from cow dung especially

in the northern regions where cattle rearing is more predominant, the present nomadic system of

rearing cattle must give way to a permanent centered system so as to create an easier medium to get

feedstock for the biogas plants. Likewise, in the southern regions, the culture of letting domestic animals

(pigs, hens, sheep, goats, etc.), to stray and litter the neighborhood with their excreta as is applicable in

most rural areas of the country, must be put to an end if biogas technology has to profit from it.

One of the greatest barriers is the unacceptability of using human excreta to generate fuel as they

believe it’s a taboo to use excreta for any purpose rather than allowing it to decompose because of

possible fears of disease outbreak. Since the rural dwellers believe in the services of the public health

department, it will be preferable for local health centers to start making use of human waste for energy

generation in a small biogas plant to set an example for the local people to emulate.

Possible solutions to overcome these barriers would be dealt with in the next chapter –under

recommendation.

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CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion and Recommendation

6.1 CONCLUSION

“The day must come when electricity will be for everyone, as waters of the rivers and the wind of heaven.

It should not be merely supplied, but lavished; that men may use it at their will, as the air they breathe.”

Emile Zola --"Travail" (Book III, Ch II) pub. 1901

Cameroon, a nation with great renewable energy potential, which if exploited judiciously could

contribute immensely to the country’s energy needs which will invariably improve on the state of social

economic development of the country, is still suffering from a lot of energy crisis. The ability to

contribute to sustainable development remains one of the greatest challenges attributed to exploitation

of these resources. Unfortunately the main power supply (hydro) of the country is unable to meet the

energy needs of the people – especially the rural areas. Imperatively renewable energy technology

promoted in Cameroon market should be oriented towards productive activities because this could

provide services that aid economic development.

Appropriate selection of R E technology is necessary to suit the desired need and it is imperative to

match it up with the available potentials at the disposal as the cases treated in chapter 4

In Cameroon though the entire nation could be favourable for solar technology implementation, the

most favourable site is the northern region with the highest solar potential of 500-600wh/d as seen in

chapter 3. Due to economies of scale, the productions of solar PV system are far cheaper at the moment

thereby making solar systems not too expensive and reliable energy source for Cameroonians.

The southern part on the other hand is more fertile for bioenergy production as seen in chapter three

(3.6- evaluation of Cameroon biomass potential) and also in chapter four (figure 4-1-taxonomy of

suitable regions and feedstock for production of biofuel in Cameroon). Though Cameroon has little

problem when it comes to food crises care should be taken so that the production of bioenergy crops is

not at the expense of food production. Strategies whereby part of arable land after providing enough to

feed the country could be used for production of biofuel crops should be encouraged; this will help not

to jeopardize forest areas. Instead of destroying the forest for bioenergy crop production research

should be encouraged on the use of existing tropical forest energy crops, and the use of biomass which

normally leads to forest depletion should be looked into via the improvement of traditional clay stove.

The aim of biofuel production determines its effect on the economic, social and environmental domain,

for instance it could result in the following consequences if it is geared towards fossil fuel substitution

with the principal objective to maintain mass production: high food prices, food insecurity, biodiversity

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loss, violence and conflict; as many poor people will be forcefully evacuated from their ancestral land,

environmental pollution due to high use of chemicals, etc. though it is said that industrial production of

biofuel leads to job creation but in Cameroon, the condition of work for those working in the already

existing farms like PAMOL, SOCAPALM, CDC, etc, is deplorable . On the other side of the coin, if the

production is targeted towards local consumption then the effect would be obvious since local resource

will have to be put into use thereby limiting the use of imported fossil fuel. Food insecurity and land

crisis will not be much of a problem.

As seen in section 3.3, of this thesis, there are no direct law governing the RE sector in the country,

though there are regulatory text governing the energy sector which RE is a subset of it. It is clear that

these policies did not consider solar and bioenergy to be of prime interest, thus have failed to provide

incentives and grants to encourage the use and incorporation of these energy types into the energy

policy of Cameroon.

Fundamentally the energy gap in Cameroon remained one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s

sustainable development, with an estimated increasing gap of 8% (Tansi, 2012). For this gap to be

narrowed, the potentials of RE especially solar and bioenergy should be fully developed and an

institutional framework that warrant continuity for posterity must be taken into consideration.

Conclusively, the issue of corruption which in most cases starts from the caliber of aristocracy down to

the lower class in the country’s civil service sector has been a major drawback to the development of

solar and bioenergy sectors of Cameroon. Corruption in this case is viewed from various perspectives

and driven by different incentives; in most cases those occupying top positions have killed the initiatives

of some investors in the RE sectors because they demand huge sum of money as bribe before approving

projects that could be very beneficial to the citizens of Cameroon, especially the rural poor. For those at

the bottom, they view corruption as a means of survival thereby doing all sort of evils like hiding and

displacing files for RE projects which they haven’t receive any bribe, illegal connections of electricity to

some individuals, etc. Normally corruption is an impediment in every domain so therefore modalities

should be put in place on how to eliminate corruption so that fertile ground for solar and bioenergy

technologies investments are laid in Cameroon.

6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

In order to meet up with energy needs of Cameroonians, some recommendations have been drawn

from this thesis. The government of the republic of Cameroon should institute strategies for small scale

solar and bioenergy technologies treated in chapter 4 of this work; with this in place reliable and

74

affordable energy needs of Cameroonians – especially the rural poor would be met. These strategies

would act as a panacea for energy crises and sustainable development in the country.

For this objective to be attained, it will be ideal to look at the possible ways to overcome the barriers

involved in the development of solar and bioenergy potentials in Cameroon.

6.2.1 Overcoming barriers to solar and bioenergy adoption in Cameroon.

Policy framework: as noted earlier, there is no clear-cut RE policy in Cameroon thereby relegating this

sector to suffer a lot, to solve this problem, practical and continues policy-oriented RE programmes

aimed at targeting the energy needs of Cameroonians should be initiated. This policy agenda should be

fashioned in a manner whereby the economic and environmental benefits of solar and bioenergy

technologies would be demonstrated to poor Cameroonians and recommend policy initiatives (both

short and medium term) that would provoke these technology types to be widely spread in a large-

scale. Priority should be placed on the tangible economic benefits accrued by this energy types on both

micro and macro levels especially income generation. The revenue policies should be such that would

encourage the development and dissemination of RE in the country. For instance taxes levied on the

importation of RET items should be such as would encourage investment in this sector.

Opportunities for Financing: It should be noted that financial barriers are one of the problems of

implementing renewable energy technology in Cameroon. In this case necessary financial mechanisms

should be put into place. Banks and micro finances should endeavour to provide loans for renewable

energy investments. The mechanisms should take into consideration the local context (income sources

and patterns). The government should collaborate with the private sector initiative so as to benefit from

international financial assistance from international organization such as United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF), Clean

Development Mechanism /Join Implementation (CDM/JI) among others. To say the least, sustainable

use of renewable energy technology is a medium of local job creation and foreign exchange earnings,

reduced energy prices in the country as a result of increased energy supplies and it reduces the level of

greenhouse gas emissions. Targeting economic growth and energy security simultaneously creates a

wider range for scaling up the utilization of renewable energy in Cameroon to perk up energy availability

and to trim down its dependence on the import of oil and gas.

75

Appropriate technology and local capacity building: the type of RETs option to be chosen for

dissemination and development in Cameroon, must consider the availability of existing technical

expertise and local industries. This will help to improve on the old methods thereby building on

successfully disseminated and already established skills.

Photovoltaic technology is not easily disseminated because of lack of technical expertise and a

significant proportion of its component is based on imported technologies. This makes it more

expensive and reduces the opportunity for local technical development in this area. In this case,

strategies should be put in place by the Government of Cameroon to ensure local capacity building in

this sector.

Small scale bioenergy technologies (e.g. briquette technology and improved cook stoves) built on local

knowledge and skills have less of a problem, which results in larger and more sustainable dissemination.

Since, these technologies easily increase gradually over time, and can be manufactured easily with lesser

problems, employment opportunities and local enterprises are created. If this sector is supported both

at local and international levels financially, Cameroon may likely become a great player in the global

renewable energy industry. For instance, over 75% of the components required in the small scale

bioenergy technologies in chapter 4 of this work can be sourced locally.

Regular training courses on RE designed to build up a significant mass of home based manpower with

the essential economic, technical and socio-cultural skills should be provided to the rural and urban

poor. At the moment in Cameroon most of the technical and engineering courses taught at secondary

schools and institutions of higher learning do not provide adequate exposure to energy technologies.

The ministries of education and vocational training, technical education, higher education etc should

change the present curricula of colleges and institutions of higher learning to suit modern times. With

this in place, locally skilled RE technicians, engineers, and policy analysts would be available to sustain

the RE sector of the country.

Furthermore, for a higher level of development of RET to be attained, those with already existing

knowledge on RET should be encouraged to be more innovative and the government through the

Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, should develop a programme where these individuals

could be identified and encouraged. In doing this all forms of nepotism and tribalism - being a serious

illness in Cameroon should be avoided.

A lot of basic information about the RE sector in Cameroon is unknown, for this reason local analytical

know-how to offer all-inclusive assessment of existing RE resources and option to make use of them are

76

essential in the country, and this can be achieved by making use of non-partisan groups (e.g., NGOs,

independent research institutes) so as to avoid any form of bias.

Cameroon is a country with more than 260 tribes and each tribe has a distinct dialect and so are their

beliefs different. This socio- cultural barrier also poses a lot of problems to renewable energy

dissemination in the country especially in the rural areas where they hold tight to their beliefs, coupled

with high illiteracy rate. To overcome this problem programmes should be developed to improve the

level of literacy and the rural people should be fully involved in RE programmes at all stages so as to

wipe off any form of cultural illusion against RE technology.

Gender consideration should not be overlooked, because women are the major consumers of basic

energy need in Cameroon – especially for cooking therefore they should be fully involved in decision

making as regards RET issues.

For the objective of this research to be met, efforts must be made to integrate analytical expertise

within technology and the social science sector, for instance expertise within the banking, community

development and public health should be included in this area of support. This will help to pave way for

proper understanding of the resources, technologies and the policy framework through which they may

be adopted to meet the energy needs of target communities in Cameroon.

If all these recommendations are instituted rightly, the following results which might contribute to

sustainable development could be attained:

- the living conditions of rural households could get better as small scale RET types will bypass the use of

firewood thereby reducing hazardous smoke that results from burning firewood. Although the ICS

generates some smoke, a chimney is designed to take care of that problem so that the users will not

suffer any health problems that emanate from using fuel wood,

- the quality of life for women and children could be improved by reducing the quantity of firewood for

cooking purposes , thereby reducing the time spent on gathering firewood and making ample time for

more fruitful activities such as children education, economic activities, agricultural tasks etc,

- reducing the costs for energy at short and long run will help the rural women to save some money for

other purposes such as health, education for children, budget for homes etc

-reducing the rate of tropical rainforest deforestation, thus slowing the rate of soil erosion, preserving

natural habitats, protecting watersheds and biodiversity thereby creating a comfortable environment

77

for fertile farming (increased yield) which invariably help to improve the quality of life for the rural

people.

-lots of jobs will be created in the production, maintenance and distribution of the small scale RET

systems treated in chapter four and this might help to ameliorate the unemployment rate of Cameroon

thus reducing the poverty problems of the country,

-the introduction of small scale RET systems in chapter four might not only be energy-efficient, but

might also bring about technological self reliance especially when the local people are made to

participate fully in the projects and also as available raw materials are to be put in use.

78

79

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