TITLE:
An Overview of the Energy Sector in Malawi
AUTHORS:
Gregory E. T. Gamula, Liu Hui, Wuyuan Peng
KEYWORDS:
Energy Supply; Energy Development; Energy Resources; Electrical Energy
JOURNAL NAME:
Energy and Power Engineering,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
4,
2013
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents the status of
the energy sector in Malawi
which is not effectively contributing to the national economic development
because it is unreliable and insufficient hence not able to meet the energy
demand. About 83% of Malawi’s
population live in rural areas and rely on fuel wood for energy supply. High
reliance on biomass has had negative environmental impacts through indoor
pollution, deforestation, soil erosion leading to high soil sediment loads to
water bodies resulting in poor water quality in rivers and lakes. Electricity
supply is much less than demand resulting in deficient and unreliable supply. Malawi is endowed with a number of renewable energy resources yet
utilization of these resources is still a major challenge. Little progress has
been made in improving the energy supply situation due to a number of reasons,
main ones being poverty, lack of political will and wrong approaches in
addressing the energy problem. Most current approaches aim at improving the
current situation but our opinion would be to develop new strategies to shift
the energy situation from its present condition to the desired status. The
paper starts with an introduction, then status of the energy sector, then goes
on to discuss energy development efforts according to sectors and finally gives
a conclusion.