Over a quarter of the investments of the European Union's financing institution in sub-Saharan Africa are in the energy, oil and gas sectors.

While oil profits have flooded into countries such as Angola and Nigeria in recent decades, some African observers see new potential for the continent in the form of increasingly in-demand biofuels.
Biofuels, loosely defined as liquid or gas fuels derived from biomass, produce significantly less ozone-damaging carbon emissions than fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. A large swath of southern Africa, including Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, is proving fertile ground for those seeking an alternative to fossil fuels.
It is a development that has not escaped the notice of Europe.
In a 2006 Green Paper ’A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy’, the European Union (EU) affirmed that “the new EU-Africa strategy, envisaging interconnections of energy systems as a priority area, could also help Europe to diversify its oil and gas supply sources.“ The paper went on to stress Europe’s need to diversify its energy resources.
“There is a potential market in Europe in this regard,“ says Teodsio Bule, a policy officer with the Secretariado Tecnico de Segurana Alimentar e Nutricional (SETSAN, Poverty, Food Security and Nutrition Secretariat) based in Maputo in Mozambique, Ipsnews.net said.
“Africa is close to the EU, and the EU is willing to have more biofuel on its continent. As Africa appears as one of the most likely suppliers of biofuel, we want to take advantage of this,“ he told IPS.
Over a quarter of the investments of the European Union’s financing institution, the European Investment Bank (EIB), in sub-Saharan Africa are in the energy, oil and gas sectors, close to 600 million euros since 2000.
One card in Africa’s favor that has come to the fore in recent years, some European officials suggest, is the creation of the African Union (AU). The AU is a body of 53 African states formed in 2001 with the ostensible aim of integrating the region’s currency and its defense forces, as well as promoting human rights.
The AU is the successor body to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963 and disbanded in 2002. Times have changed, though, and many of Africa’s long civil wars have come to an end, with relatively transparent and fair elections held in nations such as Congo and Liberia earlier plagued with widespread corruption.
“This relationship, which was very much a donor-recipient relationship, is evolving into a dialogue on many issues and not just concentration on development,“ says Marie-Laure de Bergh, a program officer with the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Brussels.
One pivotal player in the development of biofuel initiatives in Africa, analysts say, has been Brazil, which in many ways blazed the trail for biofuel development three decades ago when it launched an ethanol motor fuel program in 1975. According to the Union of Sao Paulo Sugarcane Industries (UNICA), about 56 percent of this year’s cane crop is diverted to ethanol production.
Now the Brazilian ethanol experience may serve as a model for biofuel in Africa, with the current government of President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva having technical cooperation agreements with regards to agriculture in place with both Angola and Mozambique, which many hope will facilitate the development of biofuels there.
Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company, recently joined forces with the Italian energy firm Eni to seek out avenues for exporting biofuel from Africa to Italy. The move follows the creation in late 2006 of an office in Accra in Ghana by Embrapa, an arm of the Brazilian government tasked with agriculture and biotechnology research. The office has already begun aiding Angola in its development of a soybean-based biofuel industry, and is reaching out to Mozambique as well.

Energy costs continue to rise. Health problems are increasingly being linked to poor air quality. Evidence that the burning of fossil fuels is destroying the environment is mounting all the time.
A recent study by British and Swiss researchers that the sun’s changing energy levels have little to do with Global Warming is the latest finger to point to human activity as the culprit.
And as the summer sun bears down on much of the country, it’s no wonder that more and more people are harnessing the sun’s energy to power their homes.
Brad Collins, executive director of the American Solar Energy Society--a Colorado-based organization that promotes the use of solar power and other sources of sustainable energy--said it is difficult to estimate the number of homes and businesses that use solar power, primarily because many of them--up to 40 percent--operate off-grid. But he believes the number tops 100,000.
“This is an industry that is growing more than 30 percent a year,“ he said.
“Business has increased several fold in the last few years and keeping up with the growth is challenging,“ said Conrad Geyser, principal of Cotuit Solar, a Cape-Cod based solar installation company that services Massachusetts and distributes systems throughout New England. “The energy problem in this country is absolutely staggering. The work in front of us is daunting.“

Incentives
There are several major influences contributing to solar power’s rise, Collins said. Federal and state incentives, such as tax credits and rebates, and the increase of renewable energy portfolios in some states--like California, where mandates provide for a specified percentage of energy come from renewable sources--have boosted installations. In Collins home state of Colorado, a 2004 initiative passed by voters requires that 10 percent of total electricity production come from renewable sources. Ten percent of that must be derived from solar power. Other states, such as Washington and Texas, are following suit, ENN.com said.
“I think they’re an expression of the public’s desire,“ said Collins about the newly passed state laws.
Geyser, who has been in the solar business for 19 years and has installed roughly 100 systems and revamped another 200 old systems, said as a business, solar power just made sense. “I’ve always been aware of energy issues and solar was a natural gravitation,“ he said. “Harvesting energy from the sun us really logical as well as an enjoyable thing. There is an attachment to perpetuity there.“
He said the majority of his customers are concerned with the money-savings and payback solar power can provide.
“With a 10 percent annual energy cost escalation rate, renewable energy makes a very attractive investment, especially taking into account the fact that a well designed solar system has an indefinite lifespan,“ he said. (Collins said most solar panels are guaranteed for 25 years. Some homes have been using them for decades. Geyser said he has reinstalled new panels--after the re-roofing of a home--that appear as if they could last 25 more.)
But Collins said, “there’s a whole set of non-economic drivers“ for installing solar. For one, more and more people are looking towards themselves to help create positive change and to turn around a society that is largely dependent on fossil fuels.
“There’s a sense of legacy here,“ said Collins, who last year installed a solar water heater in his home. “There’s a sense that ’I’m doing my part.’“

Climate Change
“Of course global climate change motivates many people to take action regardless of paybacks,“ said Geyser. “Typically, these people are more tuned into the enjoyment that renewable energy provides. They like to monitor the performance of their systems and adjust their lifestyles to amplify the rewards.“
Collins added that consumers may also feel like they’re making a statement about energy security by using a sustainable energy source. They want to see the economy evolve. And they want to be innovators. Many home installations, he said, occur on a grass-roots level, people following in the footsteps of neighbors that are using solar power.
“People talk to their neighbors,“ he said. “They get excited about these things and they say, ’We can do that.’“
So, just how much will a solar system cost, and how much can you save?
There are many factors that determine cost and payback. But Geyser said that a top-quality solar domestic hot water system can run anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on available incentives and system size. Payback can be expected in 4 to 12 years, but the lifespan of the system is indefinite. Solar electric systems, he said, can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000.
“There is a longer payback here, but again an indefinite lifespan,“ he said.
Because the ASES has received so many inquiries regarding solar system cost-- questions that, again, are difficult to answer generally--in 2005, the group launched FindSolar.com, a free cost and output estimator and directory of solar contractors. The link also helps consumers research federal and state incentives. In its first six months, the site received over 100,000 visitors, generating nearly 3,000 leads.
“It’s a public service because we could not answer the questions completely,“ Collins said.
Collins said that despite the increase in the number of people using solar power, there are still many misconceptions about the technology, such as the one that you need to live in sunny California to make use of it. But one only need look at Germany, the world’s largest producer of solar power to know that isn’t the case.

A new way to make cubic zirconia with very small crystal sizes could be key to making hydrogen fuel cells more reliable and cost-effective.
The invention by a team led by Zuhair Munir, distinguished professor of chemical engineering and materials science at UC Davis, was recently included in Nanotech Briefs magazine’s Nano50 awards for 2007. The awards recognize technologies, products and people most likely to impact the state of the art in nanotechnology, Fuelcellwroks.com said.
Fuelcells combine hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to release energy, leaving only water as a waste product. Fuel cells could be an alternative power source for vehicles and other uses, but there are significant challenges to their widespread use. Current fuel cells run at temperatures of 1,500 to 1,800 degrees F (800 to 1,000 degrees C). Just reaching working temperature requires energy, and the heat quickly wears out metal, plastic and ceramic components. Prevailing fuel-cell designs also require an expensive platinum catalyst.
The new technology could allow fuel cells to run at much lower temperatures, 122 to 212 degrees F (50 to 100 degrees C).
Munir, Umberto Anselmi-Tamburini and Sangtae Kim at UC Davis invented a method to make oxides such as cubic zirconia (zirconium oxide) with extremely small grain sizes, on the order of 15 nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or the size of a few atoms. At that scale, the crystals conduct electricity very well, through the movement of protons. The material could be used in fuel cells that are based on chemical oxides.
Munir was also recipient of the 2007 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. The prize includes a cash award of $35,000, thought to be the largest of its kind in the nation.
A patent application has been filed for the technology. A paper describing the technique was published in the journal Applied Physics Letters last year. The Nano50 awards will be presented during the National Nano Engineering Conference in Boston, Nov. 14 and 15, 2007.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took umbrage with remarks this week that increasing the country’s ethanol production would further harm the Amazon rainforest.
The economy-conscious Lula was responding to remarks made last week during his visit to Brussels for a biodiesel conference that increased global demand for alternatives to fossil fuels would prompt Brazil to cut down large swaths of the rainforest to clear more soil for sugarcane, the main ingredient in Brazilian ethanol.
The Brazilian leader was obviously offended by those questioning Brazil’s intent when it comes to the environment, particularly since the South American nation has been a leader in biofuels such as ethanol for more than 30 years, UPI.com said.
“We have adversaries that will make up any kind of slander against the quality of ethanol and biodiesel,“ Lula said earlier this week during his weekly radio address in Brazil.
The president said that as far back as the early Portuguese settlers, Brazilians knew that the Amazon was not a suitable environment for growing ethanol and that increasing production to meet regional and worldwide demand for ethanol would not hasten the deforestation of the Amazon.
Brazil can triple its production in the coming years “without knocking down a single tree,“ Brazilian Minister of Agriculture Luis Carlos Guedes Pinto said in December.
This isn’t the first time that Brazil’s growing ethanol industry has come under fire.
Earlier this year, when Washington and Brasilia inked a deal to expand ethanol production in Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro complained that the deal would in essence reduce the amount of land used for food crops and rob the region’s hungry of vital food supplies.
Lula rejected the comments, saying food production would not be affected by the effort to produce alternatives to petroleum, of which Venezuela is the largest producer in the region and counts the United States as its best customer.
“All South American countries and Africa can easily produce oil seeds for biodiesel, sugarcane for ethanol and food at the same time,“ he said, referring to Brazil’s ambition to work with European nations to increase sugar production in Africa to promote ethanol production on that continent as well.
Brazil has been a world leader in alternative fuels since the 1970s, when Brazil’s Pro-Ethanol Program subsidized sugar mills to produce extra product specifically for the production of the biofuel in the wake of the oil price spike experienced worldwide.
Now, Brazil is producing enough ethanol to meet its growing domestic needs and with the help of some foreign investment could one day make the leap to becoming a major international vendor of alternative fuels, a bandwagon the Bush administration would like to join considering the president’s recent pledge to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Brazil’s ethanol industry and success with combining biofuels and fossil fuel for vehicles has already caught the attention of European nations, which in 2006 expressed interest in promoting the production of ethanol in Africa using Brazilian technology.
So far, Britain and the Netherlands are among the countries looking to partner with Brazil to grow sugarcane for ethanol in South Africa and Mozambique.
While the prospect for partnership resonates well in both Brazil and the United States, the greater integration of their respective ethanol industries will not be without its share of hiccups.
Analysts also warn of the potential political fallout from the US-Brazil energy alliance.
Cuba is interested in reviving its own sugar sector, once a world leader with the help of Soviet subsidies. Coupled with the growing role oil-rich Venezuela plays in world energy, forging an alliance could prove politically troublesome for both Bush and Lula.

While Asia is emerging strongly on the installed wind power capacity map, Africa too has, for the first time, made its mark in global statistics of wind energy generation by the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA).
“The world is witnessing a rapid shift from Europe to Asia and America. Asian giants, China and India, are adding capacities like never before. Lately, wind power majors have also started taking interest in African market where the economies are doing slightly better than before and seeking more power,“ said Anil Kane, president of WWEA.
Asia’s installed capacity has increased to 10,345MW by 2006-end from 7,000MW in 2005. With this, Asia’s share in total installed capacity has increased to 14% from 12% before. On the other hand, despite adding about 7,500MW of capacity, Europe’s share in world wind power has slipped to 66% in 2006 from 70% in 2005, Indiatimes.com said.
According to sources, the European market is losing its charm and becoming stagnated since the new installations are not coming up rapidly.
Meanwhile, America added about 3,400MW during 2006 and increased its share from 17% to 18% globally. America had installed capacity of 10,036MW by 2005-end. However, Australia retained the same position with 1% since it added little over 132MW in 2006 to 985MW. The global installed capacity in the wind energy is likely to cross 90,000MW by the end of current calendar year compared with about 74,000MW by 2006 end.
India alone added about 2,000MW wind power generation capacity between 2005 and 2006. China, after a modest start, recently doubled its installations to 2,600MW by 2006 end compared with the corresponding period a year before.
“Countries like Egypt and South Africa are some of the emerging areas in global wind energy market. The marketers are yet to explore African countries but it is expected that the continent must have promising future for wind power,“ said Mr Kane.