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8753085 
Journal Article 
Alternative energy resources potential of rift valley lakes basin of ethiopia: Potentials, challenges and future development perspective 
Tadesse, M; Giorgis, TH 
2020 
10 
2 
1-18 
English 
It is natural gift that in Ethiopia more than 95% of the gross energy supply is from renewable energy sources especially from hydro power. From the total supply, 93% of the total energy supplied is in the form of solid biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, crop residue, animal dung); 2% of the supply is from hydropower; and the rest is from petroleum fuels and other energy resources. Similarly, energy supplies are dominated by renewable resources in the Rift Valley Lakes Basin of Ethiopia, RVLB. The resources estimates are based on secondary information. For solar and wind energy resources, data from the National Meteorological Services Agency (NMSA), a 1986 energy assessment (ENEC-CESEN), NASA, and a recent solar and wind energy resource assessment (SWERA, 2007) project are presented. For biofuels, areas suitable for development of high yield biodiesel feedstock crops such as Jatropha and the castor plant are identified from climatic data (rainfall, altitude and temperature). According to the SWERA database daily average solar radiation is 3 to 4.5kWh/m2.day in selected areas. However, this result substantially lower than both the ENEC-CESEN studies (30 to 40% less) and also measured data. Among the four sites for which data are available Bekoji has the highest wind speed at 6.2m/s. At this speed both mechanical and electric power generation are viable. Wind speed at Arba Minch is reported to be 4.6m/s and this is viable for mechanical wind power applications. The potential biodiesel oil output in the basin will be about 0.4 million tonnes per year. This is about half the current petroleum diesel production in the country. Since biodiesel blends with petroleum diesel are usually in the range of 2 to 5% (less than 40,000 tonnes) a large share of the potential output would have to be exported from Ethiopia. The RVLB has considerable solar, wind and micro hydropower resources. The basin also has large areas that are suitable for the production of biofuel crops such as Jatropha and castor bean. The level of development of these resources is rather limited: only about fifty wind pumps and a very few solar and micro hydropower systems are in operation in the whole basin. © 2021 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering. All Rights Reserved. 
Biofuels; Renewable