Volume 1, Issue No. 6, December 2012/ January 2013
Foreword by the Acting Chair of Society of African Earth Scientists, Dr Chukwunyere Kamalu
Welcome to the sixth issue of
the bi-monthly newsletter of the Society of African Earth Scientists (SAES).
In the current issue we address the
continent’s prospects for self-sufficiency in energy provision, particularly
renewable energy, as informed by the foresight of Cheikh Anta Diop – one of the
continent’s foremost scholars and thinkers. There is also a brief report from
one of our trustees, Ndivhuwo Cecilia Mukosi, who attended the 24th
Colloquium on African Geology, hosted by the Geological Society of Africa in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2013.
Affordable Renewable Energy Prospects as informed by Cheikh Anta Diop’s
Energy Vision for Africa
Cheikh Anta Diop, the late
Senegalese historian and physicist (1923-1986), assessed Africa’s compendium of
energy sources in “Black Africa: The basis for a federated state”1.
We are made aware of the diverse range of potential energy sources to power Africa’s
development.
Four renewable sources of energy in Diop’s
compendium are of particular interest: wind energy, solar (both direct and
indirect), river or hydro power, and geothermal energy.
The most common way of creating electricity
from renewable energy and fossil fuel sources is to generate sufficient heat to
boil water and create steam that will in turn drive turbines. The turbines then
rotate a current carrying conductor through a magnetic field or vice versa (the
magnet / magnetic field is rotated instead of the conductor) to generate
electricity. The reader will recall from
his/her high school physics, that a mere change in a magnetic field will
generate an electric current. This is the manner in which electricity is
generated in most power plants throughout the world, usually by burning fossil
fuels (coal, oil or gas). But the principle is the same in generating
electricity from renewables: we create sufficient heat to boil water and create
steam to drive a turbine.
As espoused in black Africa, Diop’s “Energy
Doctrine” is simply to diversify Africa’s potential energy sources in complimentary
harmony. This will lead Africa to a more
secure energy future compared to the present over-reliance on unsustainable
fossil fuels.
Since the 1970s when Diop was writing, solar
cells (used to produce electricity from the sun indirectly) have reduced
considerably in cost. However, an even
cheaper option may be offered by employing solar energy directly in the form known
nowadays as “concentrating solar energy”. This involves focusing direct
sunlight onto the focal axis of a curved mirror. The axis may consist of a
metal bar which is allowed to collect heat generated by focussed sunlight. This axis may be a metallic casing filled
with oil. The flow of the oil can carry heat to where it will heat up water to
boiling point and produce steam to drive turbines and generate electricity in
the usual way. Concentrating solar energy promises affordable renewable energy
generated by modest scale installations that are small enough to be accessible
in terms of low cost and low technology to local African communities.
Certain other features of Diop’s African
energy plan have come into realisation since the 1970s. Kenya’s geothermal
energy, being supplied through the exploitation of wells drilled in the Rift
Valley region, is now in operation. Now that wells have been drilled,
completing the most expensive stage of the process, there is the prospect of a
renewable affordable energy source, whereby steam can be generated simply by
pumping water down these wells, where the water is heated by the hot rock below
to produce steam and hence to power turbines.
In Black Africa, Diop also notes the
potential that exists for harnessing of wind energy in west and southern Africa.
In the current day, we find that South African scientists are increasingly
exploring the potentials for use of wind energy. So we may conclude, it seems
that Diop’s energy plan for Africa is definitely displaying signs of coming to
fruition, in terms of developments on the continent in respect of renewable
energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy.
Africa has the clear potential to innovate
and even demonstrate leadership in respect of its approach to developing
renewable energy sources. But much work remains to be done and African
governments can do far more to ensure investment into renewable energy
sources. Renewable energy, such as solar
is already transforming the approach to energy on the continent. As already
noted, we witness the costs of solar cells significantly falling, and this
trend is likely to continue. Solar and
other renewable sources, present the very real prospect of an energy revolution
in Africa. Not only this, but the emergence of cheaper solar and other
renewables promises to invigorate local economies, encourage intra-African
trade and engender a faster pace of African development.
The falling cost of solar is liberating
African communities from reliance on the national grid as their only means of
access to electricity. As prices continue to fall the affordability of solar
brings within reach the prospect of community self reliance and the possibility
that local communities can, through a collective effort (Ujamaa) build their
own modest scale energy plants, sufficiently low tech enough to facilitate continued and long term maintenance and hence
sustainability of such projects.
Report on the 24th Colloquium on African Geology hosted by
Geological Society of Africa
By Ndivhuwo Cecilia Mukosi
The 24th Colloquium of African Geology
(CAG24) took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the 09-14th January
2013.
 |
Some of the YES participants with the President of Geological Society of Africa, Prof. Aberra Mogessie, during the YES Africa Symposium on the 11 January 2013
|
African Geopark
Networks. This workshop was facilitated by Prof Patrick J. Mc Keever from
UNESCO and Prof Ezzoura Errami, President of the African Association of Women
in Geosciences (AAWG). The role of this workshop was to train participants on
how to create geoparks, since the African continent does not have any geoparks
although the continent is rich with geological and cultural history that is
internationally and scientifically significant.
 |
Some of the Geopark Workshop participants with Prof Ezzoura Errami (middle right)
|
I attended the cocktail welcome function
that took place at the Millennium hall on the evening of the 08th
January 2013, which was an opportunity to meet colleagues and also make new
contacts with other participants. The opening ceremony took place on the 09th
January 2013, where the minister of the Ministry of Mines of the Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia her excellence Mrs. Sinkinesh Ejigu was a guest
of honor.
Earth Science Book
Reviews
Modern Hydrology and
Sustainable Water Development by S.K. Gupta2
This book is a gem recommended for permanent inclusion on the earth
science reading list. It is admirably well written and arranged to convey a
broad and complex subject in the most logical order the reader might expect. Gupta’s definition of hydrology is comprehensive and
concise: 
"Hydrology
deals with the scientific study of water, its occurrence, and movement through
the earth-atmosphere system (air, land, and ocean). It is a discipline in the
realm of geosciences and derives upon knowledge and techniques from several
other fields (i.e., civil engineering, hydraulics, meteorology, geology,
forestry, soil science, etc) to address water availability, in terms of
quantity and quality.”
This volume is arranged in the way one would
expect for an approach to hydrology that emphasizes sustainable development. It opens with a study of the properties of
water and introduction to the hydrological cycle, which has a central role in
the broad study of the science. It goes on to successively look at water
occurring as surface water (glaciers, lakes, rivers and streams, surface
runoff, etc), followed by water occurring as groundwater. This includes the study of the movement of
groundwater and in later chapters the author considers the methods for the
location of groundwater and the challenges posed by groundwater pollution. The
reader is also treated to a discussion on methods of water harvesting and other issues of
water sustainability.
Generally, this is a volume that unifies a broad
subject deriving its scientific foundation from the basics of mathematics,
physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, engineering, soil science and related
disciplines. It is invaluable to student and professional earth scientists,
environmental scientists and engineers concerned with issues of water
sustainability in a developmental context.
Affiliation and Association with other organisations
SAES is affiliated to African Association of Women in the Geosciences, Solar Sister, South Africa Young Earth Scientists Network, Stop Africa Land Grab and Stop
Land Grabbing.
Earth Science Events
April 16-19, 2013
12th
International Conference Groundwater-Soil-Systems and Water Resources
Management
Venue: Barcelona,
Spain
May 3 - 5, 2013
Colloque
maghrebin de geophysique appliquee
Venue: Meknes,
Morocco
Overview of the latest
scientific developments and recent work to help the fight against the loss of
environmental resources and ensure environmental sustainability.
July 25-27, 2013
International Conference on
Water, Wastewater and Isotope Hydrology
Venue: Jnanajyothi auditorium, Bangalore, Karnataka state,
India.
Bangalore University through its Civil
Engineering Departments is organizing three-day International Conference on”
Water , Wastewater & Isotope Hydrology” ic-wwish-2013, on 25th – 27th July,
to create awareness on issues connected to water, wastewater, health and
isotope applications. It is also to encourage the trans-disciplinary research
amongst researchers, environmentalists, and agriculturists, NGO representatives
from industry, policy makers, sociologists, economists and students to discuss
recent developments in the concerned field
Weblink: http://www.ijwwish.com
September 8 – 12, 2013
Geological
Society of South Africa – Geoheritage 2013 Conference
Venue: Klein
Karoo, Western Province, SA.
Conference invites
papers focusing on various aspects of geoheritage, including Geo-education in relation to heritage and conservation, management of geoparks and important
gelogical/geomorphological sites. There will be an exhibition of landscape art. Contributions on the role of
landscape art in geoconservation are invited.
Weblink: http://www.gssa.org.za/
References and selected Reading,
Links, etc
1. Diop,
C. A., Black Africa : The basis for a
federated state, Lawrence Hill, Connecticut, 1979.
2. Gupta,
S.K., Modern Hydrology and Sustainable
Water Development, Wiley-Blackwell,
2011.
3. Jordan, et al (eds), Land & Power: Sustainable
agriculture and African Americans - A collection of essays from the
2007 Black environmental thought conference. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), 2007.
4. A link
on “Groundwater and Rural Water Supply in
Africa”: http://www.iah.org/downloads/occpub/IAH_ruralwater.pdf
5. Link to Journal of African Earth Sciences:
