Rwanda: energy and meteorology

In Rwanda, the Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) is charged with policy development and supervision of five major infrastructure areas, namely transport, energy, water and sanitation, urban planning and housing and meteorology.

Energy resources development and access
The Energy Sector has set the ambitious targets in its Strategic Plan, to increase access to electricity from less than 15% today to 50% of the population by 2017. This is meant to strongly support the socio-economic development of the country because without energy there is no modern communication, no adequate health care, no industry development and so on.

Power supply will be developed from a mix of sources of energy: from hydropower resources, methane gas from Lake Kivu, solar and wind, geothermal and peat resources. The objective is to reach a cumulative total installed capacity of 1,000 MW by 2017 that will serve local demand and can be exported to the region. The Government has also recognised the importance of biomass energy because it is the main source of cooking and heating energy and will have to be used in a sustainable manner to constrain environmental degradation.

Different private sector partners are co-operating with the Government for power production and will operate as independent power producers or in joint ventures. So far a lot of interest has been shown in Lake Kivu Methane gas resources, including intentions of an American company for development in the area.  

In order to further geothermal development, the Government will fund the drilling of exploration wells in order to confirm the available resource and attract private sector investment. MININFRA has identified the Southern Part of Kalisimbi as the highest priority and as a potential area for exploration. 

Rwanda might also possess petroleum resources and exploration into this will be conducted in due course.

In order to substitute fuelwood, a National Domestic Biogas Programme (NDBP) is being promoted with the main objective of developing and disseminating domestic biogas technology for cooking and lighting to rural homes that have cows. To date, around 1,000 digesters have been constructed. Biogas is also promoted in institutions such as schools, health centres and prisons.

Meterology
The objective of the Meteorological Service is to be highly efficient and effective. The Meteorological department carries out a number of functions, namely the production of more accurate, timely and reliable forecasts and warnings on weather, climate, water and related environmental information and services to the public, governments and other users.

It is also providing scientific and technical expertise and advice in support of policy- and decision-making and implementation of the agreed international development goals and multilateral agreements, specifically with regard to climate change. Information provided gives useful inputs to sectors such as agriculture, livestock development, food security, road, air and maritime transport, health and public, safety, tourism, building and construction industry, disaster management and water resources management.

Agro-meteorology provides information for agriculture that is mainly rain-fed and is therefore susceptible to variability of weather and climate, Hydrometeorology consists in daily and seasonal weather forecasts assist in the assessment and management of water resources for consumption, hydropower generation and irrigation.