Burkina Faso Energy Situation

1.1 Energy Sector

As throughout much of SSA, biomass (wood and charcoal). is the country’s main energy source, providing 84% of all energy consumed. The country is 100% dependent on fossil fuel imports and has seen a 125% increase in energy dependence over the past ten years. Energy imports, representing 10 -20% of all of the country's gross imports over the past ten years, are increasing rapidly in the face of growing demand.

Access to Electricity (% of households) 2002: 8,5%; 2008: 12%.

As the population is growing, the pressure on forest resources is growing as well. Due to lacking alternatives the consumption of fuelwood particularly in urban areas increases continuously; On average, it makes about 0,69 kg of wood per person and per day. Moreover, the urban population desires cooking with charcoal instead of wood. This increases the demand for wood in rural areas, where charcoal is produced. In those rural and peri urban areas, the consumption of wood-fuel for cooking purposes accounts for nearly 100%.

Hydroelectricity, generated locally or supplied over inter-connected grids, provides for 6% of total energy consumption. However changing weather patterns threaten hydroelectricity output. The average rainfall in Burkina Faso is decreasing and moving southward. Current predictions anticipate a loss of 100mm by 2025−2050, as well as temperature increases of 2 to 4°C over the same period. While there is a national plan for the optimised operation of hydro plants under projected flow regimes, it is not clear how severely impacted this sector will be by climate change.

New plant installations in Burkina Faso have to meet a national Environment Code that requires an environmental impact assessment as well as environmental and social management plans. However, there is no inclusion of climate change issues. Moreover, no emergency plans for anticipated environmental disasters are in place nor are flooding or drought hazard maps available.

As all other CILSS (Permanent Interstate Comitee for Draught Control in the Sahel) member states, Burkina Faso has elaborated a national strategy for household energy. The main strategic orientations deal with viable forest ressources management, liberation of the market for substitutes (gas and petrol), fiscal reform and promotion of economic cooking equipments. The national Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) also treats energy issues broadly as the necessity to improve access to reliable and affordable services for the poor. Their needs for electrification, modern household fuels and management of traditional biomass are given priority.

The West African regional program of UNDP "Regional Program for the Traditional Energy Sector" (RPTES) is targeting the topic of household energy as well. At present a new phase is in preparation and should start in the beginning of 2008. Funds have been initiated by World Bank to examine politics, strategies and programs concerning traditional energy and to assist African Governments in their planification of the development of this sector. In Burkina Faso the program will comprise different components on electrification, biomass and renewable energy.

Land ownership and participation

All land is state-owned

Participation:

Relatively strong; supported by laws of 1992-2004; thousands of NGOs and associations

1.2 Problem Situation

In 2002, the consumption of fuelwood and charcoal only of the capital Ouagadougou was worth more than 8.700.000 €. Charcoal consumption is increasing and today more than two third of the fuelwood energy used in the big cities has been processed to charcoal. Thus fuelwood has to be fetched by big lorries and the radius for this has increased during the past ten years from around 150 km to 250 km around the capital. However, demographic pressure on natural forest ressources in rural areas is high as well, such as the south-west region of the country, which is exposed to high immigration.

Given the growing pressure on Burkina Faso’s biomass reserves (both from consumption and changing weather patterns), investment in research, development and dissemination budget for heat and drought resistant crops is crucial. Greater substitution of household biomass use is needed as is increasing the installed capacity of renewables (especially solar) from its currently low level of 1,000kW.

First improved cooking stoves (ICS) for wood were introduced to Burkina Faso an the end of the seventies and promoted at national level with countrywide actions during the eigthies in order to fight the abusive cut of wood. Indeed, the "national program for massiv distribution of improved stoves" during the revolutionary period aimed to reach 100% of the households in central Burkina and 50% of all other households and was one of the three national challenges at that time. But although a high coverage was achieved (up to 80% of households covered), the results were not sustainable. With the end of this national program and some smaller projects in the nineties, the production of ICS decreased considerably.

Estimations of the acutal household coverage with ICS vary between 20% in Ouagadougou and 50% in Bobo Dioulasso according to a survey carried out by PREDAS in 2004.

The recent improved stove project within EnDev has helped to renew attention on modern cooking. The population is sensitized to topic and use of improved stoves, even in regions whithout direct project intervention. During its first phase, FA-FASO started to relaunch commercial production and marketing of improved metal stoves in the 2 biggest towns. FA-FASO was one component of the German Mission for the Support of CILSS between 07/2005 – 06/2007. As a result 32,000 people in Burkina Faso gained access to improved cooking stoves until the end of 2006. The household energy interventions started expanding towards the end of 2006 and still continue to do so. In December 2006, the number of improved stoves disseminated was around 4,000, while in January 2007 it increased to 7,500 and in April more than 17,000 stoves were sold. The target of 15,000 disseminated stoves until end of June 2007 was achieved and even exceeded.

Extension of these activites to peri-urban and rural areas in the Eastern and South-Western region is supposed to follow in the second phase. This second phase however will be implemented within another GTZ program in Burkina Faso: the Decentralization and Communal Development Program. This change is necessary as the GTZ program “Mission of the Support of CILSS” comes to an end in June 2007.