African Entrepreneurship Record

After discussing the issue of hydraulic construction in the Great Lakes Region, Sivert turned the topic to national hydroelectric construction.

Sivert said, "Once the Fourth Five-Year Plan is completed, our country will save a large amount of coal originally used for power generation, thus reducing the development of domestic coal resources and further alleviating our energy tension problem."

At the start of 1916, the pace of hydroelectric construction in East Africa significantly accelerated, apart from the construction of hydroelectric stations in the Great Lakes Region and Ethiopian Highlands.

A wave of "hydroelectric construction" surged across East Africa, as a major global electricity power, East Africa is quite interested in hydroelectric energy.

"According to the Fourth Five-Year Plan, by 1920, East Africa’s power structure will be completely changed, with hydropower rising to at least 25% of the nation’s total power generation, which is one-fourth of the entire country’s power generation. This proportion is considerable, and will save East Africa a large amount of coal, natural gas, and oil fossil fuels."

Among these, the key substitution is coal resources. Compared to other continents, Africa’s coal resources are just above South America, of course, Antarctica is not considered, as a place with no human presence holds little practical significance.

However, comparing Antarctica’s coal resources with Africa, it’s still uncertain who would come out on top, considering Antarctica is covered by ice plains, making exploration work challenging. Moreover, Antarctica hasn’t always been at that position; ancient Antarctica once had vast forests, vegetation, and wildlife, implying that the Antarctic Region has foundational conditions for coal resource development.

Therefore, it’s unfortunate that East Africa is located on the coal-scarce African Continent, but the good news is that most of Africa’s coal resources are within East Africa’s borders, serving as a foundational condition for East Africa to initiate industrialization.

However, East Africa’s coal reserves can’t provide Ernst peace of mind, hence the quick-renewable resource of hydropower is highly regarded by Ernst.

The reason East Africa waited until the "Fourth Five-Year Plan" to vigorously develop hydroelectric resources is actually closely related to the past’s immature technology, including both construction and hydroelectric technology.

After the Fourth Five-Year Plan commenced, East Africa, through long-term accumulation of technology and experience, has finally matured the foundational conditions for hydroelectric development.

"Currently, large-scale hydroelectric projects under construction include Xingguo Hydroelectric Power Station, Lebo Hydro Power Station, Sailamu Hydro Power Station, among hundreds of others. The construction of these hydroelectric stations will greatly improve our country’s electricity energy supply issue."

Ernst is quite satisfied with this result, summarizing: "Currently, our country’s annual power generation has reached over 600 billion kilowatt-hours, equivalent to the total power generation of all other countries in the world."

"Yet, such a large amount of power generation cannot completely cope with the rapid growth of national production and life."

Since East Africa ascended to the top as the world’s leading electricity country, it has never stepped down from this position.

Especially after the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa’s power generation has bolted like an untamed horse, widening distance from Europe and America.

But this still cannot satisfy East Africa’s ever-growing electricity demand. On the path of electrification, East Africa has ventured further, with factories, railways, communications, ships, military, and residential life sectors all demanding more power.

Meanwhile, the United States’ power generation is less than half of East Africa’s; but the US’s power generation alone is enough to compare with all European countries, leading at a cliff-like drop.

Currently, East Africa’s industry has undoubtedly reached world-leading levels in electrification and mechanization, and when viewed alongside other industrial data, has firmly seated as the world’s foremost industrial nation, leading other countries in a short time.

Of course, these figures are just East Africa’s estimations, as during wartime, actual industrial data from each country is difficult to obtain.

However, it’s certain that European countries’ industries have completely shifted to primarily military and heavy industries, as reflected in past year’s foreign trade data.

East Africa has snatched a large number of industrial orders that originally belonged to European countries in the Third World, especially boosted by the East Africa World Expo, trade with South America, the Middle East, and Central Asia has soared immensely.

Ernst: "In recent years, our country’s imports of overseas coal resources have increased annually, which is closely tied to power energy."

"Although market exchange is also considered, the cost-effectiveness of importing coal is clearly low; using hydropower to replace coal can further free our industry from the shackles of coal energy."

Market exchange is one of East Africa’s current trade forms, more bluntly, it’s barter trade, as during trade with Third World countries, they don’t hold much genuine gold or silver.

So using industrial products to exchange for minerals and other commodities has now become one of the primary forms of East Africa’s foreign trade.

And during this process, East Africa also further strengthened the international monetary status of the Rhine Shield, as ongoing stable long-term trade relations inevitably involve currency issues.

"Moreover, these saved coal resources can be invested into fields like steel, metallurgy, and chemistry, which require more coal participation, compressing our industrial production costs and achieving maximum resource utilization."

Compared to the consumption of coal and other fossil fuels, hydroelectric power for East Africa is practically a free benefit, as East Africa lacks nothing but hydro resources.

This is evident from East Africa’s rivers, whether it’s the Congo, Zambezi, or Nile River, each large river has rich untapped hydroelectric potential awaiting East Africa’s development.

The Congo River’s main stream, despite massive hydroelectric potential only in downstream regions near the estuary and upstream, has tributaries—many of which flow from East Africa’s highland mountain regions into the Congo Basin, with great hydro potential.

Here, it’s worth noting, the Congo River’s main stream, especially the mid-section flowing through the Congo Basin, has very limited hydro resource potential, due to the relatively flat terrain of the basin. This makes the main stream of the Congo River from Jisan City to downstream Kinshasa, not suitable for hydroelectric station construction, but rather suitable for shipping development.

This is one of the primary reasons why Kinshasa and Jisan City, two East African cities in the tropical rainforest region became city centers. The middle stretch of the Congo River between the two cities allows free passage of ships, naturally after Kinshasa comes the Congo River’s downstream waterfall clusters, and Jisan City is the upstream waterfall cluster.

Such geographical formation makes Jisan City and Kinshasa City essential transportation hubs and freight distribution centers.

Of course, if Ernst had a choice, he would prefer the Congo River main stream shipping to lead directly to the Atlantic Ocean, as East Africa lacks "a little" hydroelectric potential of the Congo River’s downstream waterfall clusters.

Aside from East Africa’s few large rivers, the exploitable hydroelectric resources of other medium and small rivers are very considerable, and are not limited to one single region in East Africa. This geographic condition is widely distributed across the nation of East Africa.

Even the relatively dry Northwest and Northeast regions are the same, though these two regions have small populations, little industry, and small-scale agriculture, so they temporarily do not need that much electricity and water.

This primarily stems from East Africa being a migrant country, hence the population distribution is relatively in line with the era’s development, mainly leaning toward coastal habitable belts and central areas. Of course, the Great Lakes Region is a somewhat exceptional place, given its strong population nurturing capacity, East Africa initially migrated a bit more towards the Great Lakes Region.

Before East Africa’s industry developed, as an agricultural nation, the population growth in the Great Lakes Region was astonishing, turning the Great Lakes Region into a current obstacle for East Africa’s industrialization.

After all, transitioning the Great Lakes Region, an agricultural area with high population density in East Africa, into industrialization is not just an ordinary challenge; certainly, if the industrialization of the Great Lakes Region is completed, it would essentially mean East Africa’s industrialization is mostly complete, and by solving some issues in remote areas, East Africa could basically reach the industrialization levels of the United Kingdom and Germany.