Public Funding for Kinetic Hydro Ltd

**Improving Affordability and Reliability of Energy Access in Uganda with River Turbines** This study will show how novel hydro-kinetic river turbines can be a valuable addition to the portfolio of solutions that can be used to accelerate energy access and improve the quality of life for poor, rural communities in Uganda. The emergence of small, efficient, free-stream, hydro-kinetic turbines capable of economically generating electricity from the speed of fast-flowing water is a new development. It uses technology transferred from the offshore tidal energy sector, in which the UK has been a world-leader since it began, about twenty years ago. Hydro-kinetic technology is fundamentally different to conventional hydropower that extracts energy from rivers as they drop through a height, or 'head'. Conventional hydropower is cost effective and reliable at a large scale supplying power to national grids. But these enormous projects often fail to connect poor communities who are either 'beyond', or 'beneath' the grid. Hydro-kinetic turbines that are easily deployed without civil engineering works can offer affordable, reliable power to those who might otherwise be left behind. The consortium who will deliver this feasibility study brings together Kinetic Hydro, a UK SME developing the turbine technology, Practical Action, a charity with over thirty years' experience working in Sub Saharan Africa, the Challenges Group, a business development agency supporting social enterprises, and the University of Leicester, who have an established capability in assessing hydropower potential using satellite data. Uganda will be used as a case study to assess the feasibility of hydro-kinetic river turbines contributing to the acceleration of energy access provision. The country has opportunities and barriers to success that will be representative of (but not the same as) others in sub-Saharan Africa. It has low, but accelerating access to electricity, a poor and widely dispersed rural population, and a network of rivers suited to hydro-kinetic turbines. Women and marginalised groups in rural areas have disproportionately poorer energy access, as well as limited control over productive resources. Basic tasks such as collecting water, fuel and fodder consume many hours a day. Energy access can be transformative if it can used to free up time spent on chores so that it can be used for income generating activities. This project will therefore research how to deliver sustainable and impactful development projects based on hydro-kinetic turbines for the children, women and men living in Ugandan communities near to suitable rivers.

Access to reliable power is essential for any modern economy, increasing the productivity of both industry and agriculture and creating new opportunities for the service sector. However, hundreds of millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa still have no access to electricity. Even where the grid exists, blackouts are common with households and firms often experiencing outages for several hours a day. Brownouts and voltage surges can further limit end users' utilisation of electricity and can cause damage to connected appliances. These challenges result in significant costs for existing enterprises and place constraints on the opportunities for new business creation. As a result, sub-Saharan Africa now has a total capacity of backup petrol and diesel generators roughly equal to the combined installed capacity of all power plants on the grid. Power produced in this way is noisy, polluting, expensive, and incompatible with the urgent need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Nevertheless, a lack of affordable alternatives continues to drive an expansion of the backup fossil-fuel generator market. The emergence of small, efficient, free-stream, hydro-kinetic river turbines capable of economically generating electricity from fast-flowing water is a new development. They use technology transferred from the tidal energy sector, in which the UK has been a world-leader since it began, about twenty years ago. Hydro-kinetic technology is fundamentally different to conventional hydro power that extracts energy from rivers as they drop through a height, or 'head'. Hydro-kinetic turbines are installed directly into the flow of a river and so are easily deployed without civil engineering works. They can offer affordable, reliable power to businesses located near to large, fast-flowing rivers. In this project, Kinetic Hydro Ltd will investigate the opportunities to apply their river turbine technology to new markets in sub-Saharan Africa where fossil fuel generators are currently the incumbent solution. This will unlock new revenue streams for the business, save money for their customers, and reduce pollution and carbon emissions by displacing fossil-fuel generation.