Africa will – if current plans come to fruition – host the world’s largest hydro-electric power generating project. Grand Inga will be situated on the Congo River, the second largest river by flow after the Amazon.
When fully completed, the dam will produce 40,000MW of electricity, far exceeding China’s Three Gorges Dam, currently the largest HEP project. South Africa has committed to purchasing half the power and plans are already on the drawing board to construct the power lines to link the two countries.
According to AECOM-EdF who conducted a feasibility study, Grand Inga will be constructed in 6 phases with Inga 3 being the first. Inga 1 and 2 already exist and are small dams completed in the seventies and eighties respectively.
About 6,000 m3 m/s would be diverted for Inga 3 to a valley which runs parallel to the Congo riverbed. When completed, Inga 3 would produce 4,800MW of electricity.
Further stages would necessitate the flooding of the Bundi Valley to form a 22,000-hectare reservoir, drowning the Inga 3 channel.
The latest design approach allows the development of Grand Inga to have independent phases that could be operated by different operators.
