1072 – Hydropower Virunga, DR Congo
Hydropower, creating resilience
Just outside Africa’s oldest national park, the Virunga National Park, a hydropower plant was built thanks to this climate project. Insider the power plant, three turbines are driven by the waterpower of the Rutshuru River, generating about 90,360 MWh of renewable energy per year. The river water is first diverted into a canal and then flows through the three turbines before it is redirected to the Rutshuru River. The advantage: As the power plant does not need a water reservoir, there was no need for major landscape changes.
The renewable energy project increases the share of green energy in the electricity grid and helps to improve the energy self-sufficiency of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also creates local jobs and, by electrifying areas where there was previously no electricity, more security. In particular, women and children can feel safer through public lighting, for example.