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July 13, 2007
More rockers jump on biofuels/renewable energy
Bob Geldof praises potential of biofuels for Africa
FO Licht's World Ethanol & Biofuels ReportThursday July 12 2007
Irish rock star and political activist Bob Geldof has thrown his weight behind a new project aimed at producing electricity from plant seeds in Africa. Geldof has joined Britain's Helius Energy Plc as a special adviser to support the company's bioenergy projects across the continent, which is seeing demand for power surge and which feels the impact of high oil prices more than any other region, reports Reuters.
Helius, listed on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), is currently in discussion with South Africa's Eskom to supply the power utility with renewable energy, generated from biomass crops such as jatropha curcas, the seeds of which are a biodiesel feedstock.
Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg, Geldof said that bioenergy could simulate the economic growth required to lift Africa from poverty. "I do not use the word life-changing lightly," Geldof said, adding that jatropha curcas was the first solution that he had seen in his 23 years of involvement with African causes that offered Africans jobs, cash crops and economic power.
He pointed out that the failure of the Doha Development Round the World Trade Organisation negotiations that aimed to lower trade barriers around the world, permitting free trade between countries of varying prosperity and the unlikelihood of a standalone trade agreement for Africa, made it all the more important to find a solution for Africa's farmers. Biofuels offer such a solution, he said.
Geldof spoke to the media after returning from a trip to Swaziland where he visited jatropha curcas plantations planted by biodiesel producer D1 Oils. Pointing to a jatropha curcas seedling on the table, Geldof said that "the potential effect of this little fellow is enormous".
Geldof said that he was impressed by the "life-changing" potential that the cultivation of jatropha curcas trees could have on poverty-stricken African communities. The oil expelled from the tree's seeds can be processed into biofuels and the remaining plant material can be used to fire biomass energy-generation plants.
Geldof was accompanied by Helius Energy chairperson Alex Worrall and Helius Energy co-founder and D1 Oils Africa CEO Demetri Pappadopoulos. Pappadopoulos said that every hectare of jatropha curcas would produce 2.7 tonnes of oil and 4.4 tonnes of biomass.
D1 Oils Africa has obtained rights to plant more than 40,000 ha of jatropha curcas in Africa, including Swaziland and Zambia. However, the South African Department of Agriculture is yet to publish its policy on Jatropha curcas, which is currently viewed as an invasive tree.
Pappadopoulos said that the first power from jatropha curcas biomass could be produced in the next three years when D1 Oils Africa expects to harvest the first commercial crops in Swaziland and Zambia. The company has just signed a joint venture with global oil giant BP.
Posted by Martin at July 13, 2007 2:39 PM
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