Early last month Rwanda's president, Kagame inaugurated Africa's largest solar energy plant, proving once again that Rwanda can stay ahead of the curve in the adoption of new technology on the continent. The plant generates only 250kW, which isn't much, but definitely a sign of things to come.

Also on the horizon is the harnessing of methane gas from lake Kivu, which could potentially generate up to 700mW!

At this point I should mention that while renewable energy holds the great promise of energy independence, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2030 only 14 percent of total energy demand will be met from renewable sources. I tend to disagree with this notion because solar cell efficiency has been improving steadily every year, converting even more of the sun's energy into electricity. Solar power will be in widespread use in a decade or so.

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