20100927
africanews

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon is considering harnessing power from its ocean currents to help fill its chronic electricity gap.

The government of the central African state bordering the Atlantic has hired MRS Power Cameroon, a subsidiary of MRS Holding Ltd, to conduct a tidal power feasibility study, the government-owned Cameroon Tribune reported on Monday.

"This project comes at a time Cameroon is suffering a huge power deficit due to a sharp increase in demand and so it will be a wonderful alternative for power generation on a large scale in the coutry," Fitzgerald Nassako, permanent secretary at the energy ministry was quoted as saying.

Cameroon relies heavily on hydroelectric power but has faced severe power shortfalls in recent years that forced its Rio Tinto joint-venture, Alucam, to slash production rates from an aluminum smelter and is believed to be holding up broader investment.

The government has set an ambitious target of tripling power generation capacity by 2020 with a slew of mostly hydropower projects, in part to pave the way for a handful of planned energy-intensive mining projects.

Terms of the agreement, and the potential power generation capacity from the project, were not immediately available.