Bugala Power Station is a

biodiesel Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats. The roots of bi ...

-fired thermal power plant located on Bugala Island, in

Kalangala District Kalangala, also known as Ssesse, is a Districts of Uganda, district in Central Region, Uganda, Central Uganda. The district is coterminous with the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria and does not have territory on mainland Uganda. Like other Ugandan di ...

, in the Ssese Islands Archipelago, on

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

, in south-central

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

Location

The power station is located on Bugala Island, the largest island in the Ssese Islands Archipelago, in Kalangala District, in Lake Victoria,

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

's largest fresh-water lake, in Uganda's Central Region. This location is near the town of

Kalangala Kalangala is a town in Kalangala District in the Central Region, Uganda, Central Region of Uganda. It is the headquarters of the district. Location Kalangala is on the northern shore of Bugala Island, the largest of the Ssese Islands in Lake Vi ...

, where the district headquarters are located, approximately nautical , by water, southwest of the town of

Entebbe Entebbe is a city in Central Region, Uganda, Central Uganda which is located on Lake Victoria peninsula, approximately southwest of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. Entebbe was once the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda pri ...

, on the mainland.

Overview

Bugala Power Station is integrated in design and construction with the palm oil processing plant owned by Bidco Oil Refineries Limited. Bidco owns a

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

plantation on Bugala Island, where the power station is located. The oil processing factory crushes the palm oil fruits into crude palm oil. The residue is burned, generating

heat In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

, which is used to boil water, creating

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

. The steam is used to turn turbines and create

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

in the process. The electricity is used within the factory and any excess is sold to the neighboring town of

. Power is also generated by burning fibers from the tree trunks, known as

bagasse Bagasse ( ) is the dry pulpy fibrous material that remains after crushing sugarcane or sorghum stalks to extract their juice. It is used as a biofuel for the production of heat, energy, and electricity, and in the manufacture of pulp and building ...

. Construction of the power station was completed and commissioned in March 2010. The power plant and oil processing factory is a joint effort between the Ugandan Government, the

International Fund for Agricultural Development The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations that works to address poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. It is the on ...

(

IFAD The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations that works to address poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. It is the only ...

), the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and Oil Palm Uganda. Oil Palm Uganda is a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

between

Wilmar International Wilmar International Limited (); is a Singaporean food processing and investment holding company with more than 300 subsidiary companies. Founded in 1991, it is one of Asia's leading agribusiness groups alongside the COFCO Group. It ranks amongs ...

, a conglomerate that specializes in the development of agricultural plantations and Bidco Oil Refineries Limited, an oil processing company.

Uganda Palm Oil Project

Bugala Power Station is a byproduct of the Uganda Palm Oil project. The project was co-funded by Oil Palm Uganda which provided US$120 million, while

provided a loan of US$19.9 million. The Government of Uganda contributed US$12 million for land, electricity and roads. Local farmers contributed US$3.16 million through labor, equity and land. The power station and oil processing factory cost US$10 million to construct. Bidco already maintains a palm oil refinery in Uganda, located in Jinja, Uganda's second industrial city. , the acreage under palm trees by out-growers, had grown to over . The target of , under palm trees by outgrowers is expected to be attained in a few more years. By 2014, the size of the palm oil plantation had grown to , with plans to expand to .

Shareholding

The investment profile of the Uganda Palm Oil Project is summarized in the table below:

References

External links