Turkish power ship to supply electricity to country

March 2, 2016 3:08 PM

"Africa has a clear increasing demand for electricity and presents itself as a very good market for us," business development director Zeynep Harezi told Reuters.

A bus drives past the Karadeniz Powership Orhan Bey, an electricity-generating ship from Turkey, docked at the port of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Turkey's Karadeniz will in the next two weeks begin supplying Zambia with electricity from a power-generating ship as it looks to take advantage of chronic shortages in Africa, the company said on Wednesday.

Karadeniz builds what are effectively floating power stations which plug into electricity grids after berthing. They run on fuel oil but can also use natural gas.

One of the firm's vessels docked this week at Mozambique's Nacala port, from where it will supply 100 megawatts of electricity for the next two years, power that will then be exported through the grid to neighbouring Zambia.

This is the second power ship Karadeniz has deployed to Africa after a 225 MW unit arrived in Ghana last year.

"Africa has a clear increasing demand for electricity and presents itself as a very good market for us," business development director Zeynep Harezi told Reuters.

Harezi said several other African countries had expressed an interest in using Karadeniz power ships, which can be delivered in 120 days.

The 48 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a combined population of 800 million, produce roughly the same amount of power as Spain, a country of just 46 million. This constrains Africa's growth and keeps hundreds of millions in poverty.

Given Africa's huge electricity deficit, power ships can only offer a small, short-term boost to power output.