Bush chip power

 

Namibian biomass production could turn bush from irritation to asset.

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A natural energy resource in Namibia, bush chips, could be put to better, more profitable use in electricity production, according to new research. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland researchers have studied how the country suffers from an overgrowth of bush, which stifles cattle grazing. It could, however, be used in power plants with a capacity of 5-20MW.
 
Bush chips can reduce grass growth and are therefore disruptive to raising cattle, but can be an important source of raw material for electricity production in the southern African country.  The bush affects an area of 10 million hectares in the northern parts of Namibia – where there are 1,000 to 10,000 bushes per hectare – and could amount to 5-25 tonnes of biomass per hectare.

Bush overgrowth

The research proposes that the overgrowth of this bush can be managed by thinning and leaving 200-300 of the largest bushes to grow in the savannah. An average quantity of biomass obtained by thinning is about 10 tonnes per hectare. The thinned bushes re-grow from their roots, and thinning can be repeated in 10-15 years. Basically, the area affected by the overgrowth of bush produces in total 125 million tonnes of biomass, that is potentially 500 terawatts (TWh). The total consumption of energy in Namibia was 12.6 TWh in 1999.
 
Currently, Namibia sources its electricity from South Africa. There is also a coal power plant in the country’s capital Windhoek, which is used to supplement the electricity from South Africa. 

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