The UN estimates that only nine percent of rural Ugandans have access to electricity. In rural areas, up to 90% of the energy consumed comes from burning biomass. Wood fires, used for cooking and heating, pollute the environment, cause respiratory disease, and contribute to rapid deforestation.
While most of Uganda’s hydropower development has focused on large projects that utilize the waters of the Nile River, small hydropower projects have great potential for meeting the needs of rural communities.
One such project is the Ishasha Small Hydropower Project, located on the Ishasha River in Kanungu District, an impoverished, largely undeveloped, mountainous region that is home to more than 205,000 people. The district’s 41,000 households either run inefficient, polluting, and expensive diesel generators or have no electricity at all.
The Ishasha Small Hydropower Project provides the people of Kanungu with clean power, enabling them to take advantage of economic opportunities and improve their standard of living without degrading the environment.
Developed and managed by Eco Power Uganda Limited (EPUL), the plant generates clean, renewable power for the national grid, which generally relies on the burning of oil. The 29.518 GWh of electricity generated by the Ishasha plant will produce approximately 20,000 certified emission reductions (CERs) annually between 2010 and 2021.
We make the project possible by managing the verification process and all CDM communications and actions, from registration to marketing and forwarding of CERs after issuance.
We have also made the first ever trade in International Renewable Energy Certificates (IRECs) from the Ishasha hydropower plant. This trade of 6000 IRECs was made early in 2016 through our retail partner, Natural Capital Partners.
Eco Power EPUL’s parent company is the Eco Power group in Sri Lanka, a firm specializing in the design, construction and operation of small hydropower plants across Africa and Asia.