Chapter 1231 Proportion of water and electricity
After talking about water conservancy construction in the Great Lakes region, Sweet turned the topic to national hydropower construction.
Sweet said: "When the Fourth Five-Year Plan is completed, our country will save a large amount of coal originally used for power generation, thereby reducing the development of local coal resources and further alleviating our country's energy shortage problem."
At the beginning of 1916, the growth rate of hydropower construction in East Africa accelerated significantly, except for the construction of hydropower stations in the Great Lakes region and the Ethiopian Plateau.
A wave of "hydropower construction" has been launched across the country in East Africa. As a major power country in the world, East Africa is very interested in hydropower energy.
“According to the Fourth Five-Year Plan, by 1920, East Africa’s power structure will have completely changed, and hydropower will increase to account for at least 25% of the country’s total power generation, which is a quarter of East Africa’s national power generation. , this ratio is quite large and will save East Africa a lot of fossil energy such as coal, natural gas and oil.”
Among them, the key replacement is coal resources. Compared with other continents, the coal resources in Africa are only higher than those in South America. Of course, Antarctica is definitely not included. After all, a place without people is of little practical significance.
However, when comparing Antarctica’s coal resources with those of Africa, it’s hard to determine who will win. After all, Antarctica is covered by ice sheets, so exploration work is not easy to carry out. Moreover, Antarctica has not always been in that position. In ancient times, Antarctica once had a large number of forests and vegetation. and biology, which also means that there are basic conditions for the development of coal resources in the Antarctic region.
Therefore, it is unfortunate that East Africa is on a continent that is relatively short of coal. However, the good news is that most of the coal resources on the African continent are in East Africa, which is also the basic condition for East Africa to start industrialization.
However, the coal reserves in East Africa did not reassure Ernst, so water energy, a resource that could be rapidly regenerated, was extremely valued by Ernst.
Why East Africa waited until the Fourth Five-Year Plan to start vigorously developing hydropower resources is actually closely related to the immature technology in the past, whether it is construction engineering technology or hydropower technology.
After the launch of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, East Africa has accumulated long-term technology and experience, which has made the basic conditions for hydropower development in East Africa officially mature.
"There are more than 100 large-scale hydropower projects currently under construction, including Xingguo Hydropower Station, Lebo Hydropower Station, and Sailamu Hydropower Station. The construction of these hydropower stations will greatly improve my country's power and energy supply problems."
Ernst was quite satisfied with this result. He concluded: "Today, our country's annual power generation has reached more than 60 billion kilowatt hours, which is almost equal to the total power generation of other countries in the world."
"But such a large amount of power generation cannot fully cope with the rapid growth of our country's national production and life."
Since East Africa ascended to the throne of the world's largest power producer, it has never fallen from this position.
Especially since the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa’s power generation capacity has been like a wild horse running wild, completely widening the gap with European and American countries.
But this cannot meet the growing demand for electricity in East Africa. After all, East Africa is further along the road to electrification. There is an increasing demand for electricity in factories, railways, communications, ships, military, residential life and other fields.
During the same period, the power generation capacity of the United States was less than half that of East Africa, but the power generation capacity of the United States alone was enough to compare with all European countries, leading it by a cliff.
At present, the East African industry has undoubtedly reached the first place in the world in terms of electrification and mechanization. Judging from other industrial data in East Africa, it has firmly established itself as the world's first industrial country and has led other countries in a short period of time.
However, what is certain is that the industries of European countries have completely shifted to military industry and heavy industry. This can be seen from the foreign trade data of the past year.
East Africa has snatched a large number of industrial orders from European countries in the third world. Especially with the support of the East Africa World Expo, trade with South America, the Middle East, Central Asia and other regions can be said to have skyrocketed. Ernst: "In recent years, my country's import of overseas coal resources has increased year by year, which is closely related to electric energy."
"Although there are also market exchange considerations, the cost-effectiveness of imported coal is obviously not high. Using water energy instead of coal can further free our industry from the shackles of coal energy."
Market exchange is one of the current forms of trade in East Africa. In more popular terms, it is barter. After all, when East Africa trades with third world countries, they do not have much real money in their hands.
Therefore, exchanging industrial products for minerals and other products has become one of the main forms of East Africa's foreign trade.
In the process, it also further strengthened the international currency status of the East African Rhine Guild. After all, as long as a stable long-term trade relationship occurs, currency issues will eventually be involved.
"And these saved coal resources will be invested in steel, metallurgy, chemical industry and other fields that require more coal participation, so as to reduce the cost of industrial production in our country and maximize resource utilization."
Compared with the consumption of fossil energy such as coal, hydropower is simply a bargain for East Africa. After all, East Africa’s most indispensable resource is hydropower.
This can be seen from the rivers in East Africa. Regardless of large rivers such as the Congo River, Zambezi River or Nile River, there is basically abundant hydropower potential that needs to be developed in East Africa.
Although the main stream of the Congo River only has huge hydropower potential in the downstream areas near its outlet and the upper reaches, the tributaries of the Congo River, many of which flow from the plateau mountains of East Africa to the Congo Basin, have huge hydropower potential.
It must be mentioned here that the main stream of the Congo River, especially the middle section, flows through the Congo Basin, so the water energy resource potential is very limited. After all, the terrain of the basin is also relatively gentle, which makes the distance from Kisan City to Kinshasa downstream The main stream of the Congo River is not suitable for the construction of hydropower stations, but is suitable for the development of shipping.
This is one of the main reasons why the two East African cities of Kinshasa and Kisan can become cities in the tropical rainforest area. Boats can pass freely in the middle section of the Congo River between the two cities. Of course, after Kinshasa, you will reach the lower reaches of the Congo River. waterfall group, while Kisan City is the upper reaches of the waterfall group.
This geographical situation makes the cities of Quisan and Kinshasa necessary transportation hubs and cargo distribution centers.
Of course, if Ernst had the choice, he would prefer that shipping on the main stream of the Congo River can reach the Atlantic Ocean. After all, East Africa does not lack "a little bit" of the hydropower potential of the waterfalls in the lower reaches of the Congo River.
Except for several large rivers in East Africa, the exploitable hydropower resources of other small and medium-sized rivers are very considerable, and they are not limited to a certain region of East Africa. This geographical condition is widely distributed throughout East Africa.
This is true even in the northwest and northeast regions, which have a relatively arid climate. However, due to their small population, small industry, and small agricultural scale, these two regions do not need so much power generation and water for the time being.
This is mainly due to the fact that East Africa is a country of immigrants, so the population distribution is relatively in line with the development of the times, mainly moving towards the coastal habitable zone and the central region. Of course, the Great Lakes Region is an exception, and the Great Lakes Region’s ability to sustain the population is too great. Strong, so East Africa migrated a little more to the Great Lakes region.
Before East Africa's industry developed, as an agricultural country, the population growth in the Great Lakes region was astonishing, which made the Great Lakes region an obstacle to the current industrialization of East Africa.
After all, it is not that difficult to industrialize the Great Lakes Region, an agricultural area with a high density of population in East Africa. Of course, if the industrialization of the Great Lakes Region is completed, it basically means that most of the industrialization of East Africa has been completed. Regarding the problem of remote areas, East Africa can basically reach the level of industrialization of the United Kingdom and Germany.
(End of chapter)