The Floating Gas Plant That Powers Rwanda

The KivuWatt project extracts methane gas from one of Africa’s Great Lakes

In Rwanda, there is a lake with a floating barge in the center that is bringing power to homes and businesses.

This barge holds the world’s largest methane gas extraction plant — called KivuWatt. It is named for its location on Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s Great Lakes. The plant works by pulling the gas from the bottom of the lake and converting it into electricity, a remarkable feat of engineering.

Lake Kivu is a freshwater volcanic lake, straddling the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its deep waters hold a high concentration of methane gas and carbon dioxide. If this concentration continues to rise, it could ultimately reach saturation and be released into the air, threatening people living nearby — although the likelihood of such an event is low.

However, by safely extracting methane from the gas-laden water, the KivuWatt project reduces the threat of an environmental catastrophe — while also expanding Rwandans’ access to cleaner and more reliable power at a lower cost.

“In 2008, we entered into a partnership with the Government of Rwanda to transform the menace of Lake Kivu’s unique gas deposits into the source of something good for the people of Rwanda,” said Joseph C. Brandt, president and CEO of ContourGlobal, the American company that owns and operates KivuWatt.

ContourGlobal has signed 25-year gas concession and power purchase agreements with the Rwandan Government. Several development banks extended debt financing to the project, including the African Development Bank, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, the Netherlands Development Finance Company and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries.

Through the Power Africa initiative, the U.S. Embassy supported ContourGlobal during the development of the gas-to-power project, and U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda Erica J. Barks-Ruggles was on hand for the inauguration in May.

“Today’s success with KivuWatt is part of a broader effort to dramatically increase generation and access to power in Africa,” Ambassador Barks-Ruggles said. “Whether through developing possible credit tools or sharing best practices for power purchase agreements, Power Africa serves as a partner in helping Rwanda pursue the necessary reforms to attract further private investment.”

Launched in 2013 by President Obama, Power Africa is a U.S. Government-led initiative to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa through partnership.

Now that ContourGlobal has proved that Lake Kivu’s methane can be harvested at greater scale, there is hope that other companies in Rwanda and the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo can also harness this energy resource.

“We have successfully brought into operation this unique project and overcome the many challenges posed by this unprecedented attempt at large-scale gas extraction on the lake,” said ContourGlobal’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Karl Schnadt. “Our design and technology are performing even better than expected.”

Read on for more details about the project:

1. What is methane gas?

Methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is the main component of natural gas. The energy released by the combustion of methane is used to heat homes and buildings and for the generation of electric power. When burned, it produces fewer carbon emissions than coal or oil.

1. How much power is this plant adding to the grid?

In its first phase, the plant is powering three gas-powered engines to produce 26 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the local grid. The next phase of the project will deploy nine additional engines at 75 MW to create a total capacity of over 100 MW.

2. How is methane gas extracted from the lake and turned into electricity?

The gas extraction process brings gas-laden waters from 35 bars to two bars of pressure via a gas separator where gas bubbles are extracted from the water. Raw gas is then washed in four wash towers, ultimately producing clean methane gas.

This gas is then transported to the power plant through a pipeline where combustion engines generate electricity to be supplied to the Rwanda energy grid. KivuWatt’s gas extraction facility sits on a barge anchored 13 kilometers off-shore. The second phase of the project will add two or three barges to this configuration on the lake to generate the additional 75 MW.

The KivuWatt project was also featured in a new Power Africa film, launched during the U.S.-Africa Business Forum last month: