O K, here's some good news from Rwanda

Any of you readign this who have been to Gisenyi will have seen this contraption. It is anchored a few miles off shore and from Gienyi looks at first sight like a chunky lighthouse. It is actually a drilling ring and storage tank to access the millions of tons of methane which are trapped in layers of water at the bottm of this (extremely deep) lake.

Well, at long last they have started to properly use this gas to generate electricity. Previously the only use for it was to heat the brewery at Rubona - your Primus and Mutzig used lake gas to sterilise bottles and actually make the beer.

Here is an article from today's "New Times" describing the event. Good for Rwanda - saves a few millions of francs on imported oil!

"Finally, Rwanda’s dream of generating electricity out of methane gas has been realised with the first 1.8 megawatts channelled to the national grid. So far, the power extracted from Lake Kivu can supply the whole of Gisenyi District or more. “This is a memorable day in the history of this country; we have finally succeeded in extracting methane gas that has been in this lake for thousands of years and today Rwandans are consuming electricity generated from it,” State Minister for Energy Eng. Albert Butare said excitedly at the mini-launch of the pilot methane gas plant in Rubavu district."

BTW, what exactly is a "mini launch"? I thought it was a small boat.........