Zambia's Innovative Approach to Power Shortage Through Hydrokinetics and Smart Technology

Zambia’s ongoing power shortage is a significant obstacle to economic growth and daily life, highlighting the urgent need for innovative, sustainable energy solutions.

This research explores how Zambia can close its critical electricity gap by deploying advanced hydrokinetic and solar technologies alongside artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled energy management systems.

The study compares the performance of hydrokinetic systems using flowing river currents without dam construction and traditional photovoltaic solar panels, focusing on cost, efficiency, and environmental impacts.

By investing in this dual-technology approach, Zambia can become a leader in resilient, clean energy infrastructure and promote sustainable economic growth.

Introduction:

Zambia is facing a severe power shortage that has slowed its economic growth and impacted daily

life. To fix this, the country is turning to renewable energy solutions, using them in innovative ways to help bridge the electricity gap. Zambia already uses large-scale hydropower and biomass (burning organic material) for electricity generation. However, what seems more promising are two projects Lusat and Trizet Solutions have presented: one uses hydrokinetic technology to capture the energy of flowing water without building dams; the other, LUSAT, is transforming Zambia's energy crisis by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) into the Zambian grid.

In addition to generating electricity, it is equally important to manage how electricity is distributed; this is where LUSAT comes in (LUSAT, 2024). With Project Drawdown's and their partners' help, LUSAT is transforming Zambia's energy crisis by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) into the Zambian grid. With AI and IoT, the electricity across the network will be smarter, and power will be routed more effectively to homes and businesses when needed.

Understanding how the individual pieces of technology work and how they compare on cost, efficiency, and environmental impact is essential to evaluating their roles in solving the country’s energy problem. Exploring these three axes also provides insight into whether the long-term benefits for Zambia are worth the opportunity cost for their development and how well they will protect the natural ecosystems. Overview of Zambia's Energy Crisis: Zambia has struggled with a major energy crisis for several years. The crisis is mainly due to the country’s heavy dependence on hydroelectric power from large dams in an environment where precipitation is unreliable. Large dams give Zambia its power, but when rain doesn't fall, or doesn’t fall where it usually would, water levels in the country's reservoirs drop, and the government is forced to ration power, a process known as load shedding, which leaves households, businesses, and industries without electricity for several hours at a time. In a country where power is an essential driver of the economy and sustains our way of life, the absence of even a few hours of power supply is a blow. How did we, as a nation, reach this crisis point? (World Bank, 2022).

Besides grappling with weather-induced challenges, Zambia's energy infrastructure is an assembly of aging equipment and limited investment in new technologies. Thus, the nation attempts to move on a different path: using renewable energy and making the grid serve us better with artificial intelligence, IoT, and other advanced technologies. Recent estimates suggest that by 2040, Zambians will need three times more electricity than they do today. If the status quo remains, however, it is hard to envision how the energy sector will meet this demand, especially since many areas today are experiencing rather insufficient access to electricity.

Zambia is exploring renewable energy solutions beyond the traditional hydroelectric dams it has relied on. Two promising options in the country are hydrokinetic systems and solar power. Hydrokinetics involves generating energy from the flow of a river. It doesn’t require building a large dam or reservoir. Instead, the system harnesses the river's current to provide a steady source of power. Because it depends on the river's flow, it’s less likely to fail during droughts. On the other hand, solar energy uses the sun's rays to directly produce electricity (i.e., current). Like the flowing river, solar panels generate a "flow" of energy.

The Zambian government is actively seeking solutions to the energy crisis, with a focus on deploying innovative technologies. Its current strategy emphasizes renewables and advanced methods that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Power Africa, for example, has partnered with the Zambian government to support programs that could bring about significant changes in the energy sector. The joint effort is called ‘Lusaka Sanitation and Transformation,’ but truly, it should be called ‘Lusaka Energy Transformation’ because that is the core issue. Introduction to Lusat's Tiger Teams: LUSAT's Tiger Teams are specialized groups of experts dedicated to implementing bold new energy ideas in Zambia. The team members have many years of experience exploring Zambia's expanding electricity sector and its numerous challenges. They possess extensive knowledge in areas like hydrokinetics, AI, and IoT. More importantly, they are innovative thinkers with a strong commitment to public service and a mission to find urgent, sustainable solutions to Zambia's electricity crisis.

Using the energy-capture method, TRIZET Solutions and LUSAT's innovative teams have promoted hydrokinetics, which allows the Tiger Teams to generate electricity from fast-moving water currents. Because water is 800 times denser than air, a hydrokinetic project can produce as much power as a wind project of the same size, without requiring a dam, as a traditional hydroelectric project would require. Additionally, unlike a dam, a hydrokinetic installation does not block the river's flow and is therefore a much more environmentally friendly option for generating power. The power produced by the Tiger Teams' projects is baseload power, rather than intermittent, and helps stabilize the Zambian energy supply.

The Tiger Teams are not only working on generating more energy but also enhancing the existing energy distribution network. They use artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to do this. The emerging “smart grid” allows parts of the current to communicate with each other (in this case, the communication is handled by IoT devices), a capability that has been around for a few decades but is still being improved. As these parts of the current communication, they can reach a level of interaction that enables generators to converse with consumers, reducing waste and increasing efficiency.

Take, for example, the sensors placed along the waterways. They monitor water flow rates around the clock. That information is fed into artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. The AI then predicts how much electricity can be generated at any given time. With that prediction in hand, the system can efficiently distribute power, ensuring that the lights stay on in homes and businesses even when the water flow changes.

In the grand scheme, the Tiger Teams' efforts amount to an ultramodern solution to Zambia's energy problems. The power that they extract from rivers isn't just about ramping up the number of megawatts on the grid; it's about reliability (or what grid operators call "durability"), making sure that a 21st-century power source can keep up with a 21st-century electrical society as it uses more and more electricity for more and more reasons: from cell phones and laptops to eventually electric cars and the like. Hydrokinetics: Harnessing Water Energy: Hydrokinetics produces electricity by tapping into the kinetic energy in flowing water, like river currents, without the need for the colossal dams and reservoirs that traditional hydroelectricity requires. This burgeoning technology places underwater turbines and the like directly in water flows, converting the natural, continuous movement of the water into power. A hydrokinetic system is more straightforward in concept and more direct than a traditional hydroelectric system. The payoff is a continuous supply of "baseload" power, and in some cases, even more power than a conventional hydroelectric system, when a hydrokinetic system uses the same watercourse. It's also a concept that can be scaled up or down. And, at least in a river, it can be deployed in what are called "runs of river," which makes it vastly less environmentally devastating than a giant dam and reservoir.

For Lusat, the deployment of their Tiger Teams directly into the river allows them to function as a baseload power source, which is crucial for the expansion of any developing country. Baseline power is an energy source capable of providing a consistent supply of electricity to the country, and this is where Lusat differs from its contemporaries that rely on solar and wind energy. When the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, what you have left are incomplete sources of power for the grid. Lusat and Trizet, meanwhile, can fall back on the baseline power of the river, much the same way a traditional hydroelectric dam functions, though the river is still allowed to flow free and uninterrupted.

Hydrokinetic energy systems can offer a renewable energy solution with a much smaller environmental footprint than that of today’s large-scale hydroelectric dams. These systems, which harness the power of flowing water, are not tethered to huge reservoirs or to the vast, flat areas necessary for today’s biggest wind and solar plants. Moreover, they can be set up in various configurations and in different places along a river, making them both modular and scalable. This means they don’t have to be all in one place. They can be small or large. There can be many or few. And importantly, they can be configured to meet energy demands in a way that is both renewable and sustainable.

By implementing this plan, Zambia can effectively address its current energy deficits through hydrokinetic power while simultaneously building the necessary infrastructure and expertise for sustainable, long-term energy independence. Initiating a pilot project with a 50kW capacity will serve as a crucial demonstration, laying the groundwork to scale up to 20MW per site. This scalable model can be deployed across various rivers throughout Zambia, including remote and underserved regions deep within the bush.

While still an emerging technology, hydrokinetics promises a lot for countries like Zambia, which have abundant waterways but no infrastructure to support big dam projects. Yet even these underwater turbines must be considered carefully regarding their potential ecological impact. They could provide countries with minimal local power-generating capacity and a unique opportunity to use their flowing waters for dependable baseload power. And perhaps most important, they give our seemingly never-ending pursuit of power a way to harness yet another one of nature's gifts to earth: the kinetic energy of moving water (Hughes, 2021). Solar Panels: Capturing Sunlight for Power: Solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity using the photovoltaic effect. They consist of numerous solar cells, typically made from silicon, which absorb sunlight and generate an electric current. This enables solar panels to produce clean energy, devoid of any moving parts and emissions. The sun, which beams intensely across much of our planet, provides more energy than we could ever conceivably use. And in the past few years, solar power has begun to move from being a mere rounding error in our energy supply to a genuine contender as a source of power.

A significant upside to solar panels is that they are flexible in terms of where they can be installed. Rooftops, open fields, and even building materials themselves can host these panels, making urban and rural areas alike suitable places for them. This is especially advantageous in Zambia, where the government has made plans to provide electricity to remote communities using solar power. It's not hard to understand why: the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that by 2022, a third of the world's population will still be living without access to reliable electricity.

Solar has also become more affordable recently because of improved manufacturing and greater global demand. The costs of installing rooftop solar systems have plummeted by more than half over the past five years and are expected to continue decreasing. This makes it easier for governments and private companies to invest in large-scale solar farms and for homeowners to opt for smaller, distributed systems. And a solar panel, once installed, requires little maintenance, which further lowers the costs of this energy source when compared to, say, a coal power plant.

Yet, a major downside to solar power is its reliance on daylight hours and fair weather. A solar panel generates very little power when the sky is overcast, or the sun is down. Hence, effective storage solutions, like batteries, are needed to ensure that a continuous electricity supply is available. However, the storage technologies required to make solar power a reliable option have not made enough progress for solar to be considered a major part of the solution to the energy crisis (LUSAT: AI & IoT Driving Zambia's Energy Revolution, 2025).

To sum up, solar panels form an indispensable part of Zambia's renewable energy strategy. By harnessing the power of sunlight, they straightforwardly generate clean electricity. More than that, the flexibility of their design and the ever-decreasing cost of building them make solar panels an exceptionally appealing source of power for the nation. Alongside hydroelectric developments and other renewable options, they offer a way to pull the nation out of its current energy shortages while ensuring that the country's growth can be considered sustainable. Comparing Costs and Efficiency of Technologies: Hydrokinetic systems and solar panels vary significantly in cost and efficiency, which impacts how suitable they are for meeting Zambia’s energy demands. Hydrokinetic technology draws power from the natural currents of rivers, allowing it to generate electricity without the construction of large dams. This method requires far less infrastructure than traditional hydro plants and thus might be expected to make up for it in the initial cost of the power plant, which would show up over time, in the cost of maintaining and operating the power station. Despite these benefits, the construction of large hydroelectric systems is still going strong globally.

Hydrokinetic systems have developed a bad reputation for their maintenance demands. Why? Because the systems are in the water, a lot can go wrong. Debris can damage the turbines; the natural forces of moving water and the system’s own vibrations can compromise the integrity of the mounting structures; and all the associated electrical and mechanical systems can fail in the usual ways.

Hydrokinetic turbines can efficiently generate power if there is flowing water. This makes them an excellent base-load power source where aquatic environmental conditions allow it.

(Turbines of the Congo River: Powering Africa. Brookings. 2017).

The efficiency of hydrokinetic systems, as well as that of newer wind and solar installations, has been the subject of much research, and for good reason: It's all about getting the most power out of the least amount of energy resource.

Efficiency transformation (η), in the case of hydrokinetic systems, is the percentage of kinetic energy extracted from the water and converted to electricity. In the case of wind, it's the same deal with the wind source. In the case of solar energy, it's how much electricity you get from the incident sunlight on the power-producing surface.

One major downside to using solar panels to power a city or nation is their reliance on sunlight, which varies depending on weather, season, and time of day. Solar panels typically convert only about 15-20% of the sunlight they receive into usable electricity, meaning their efficiency is relatively low compared to other energy sources. Additionally, solar power generation drops significantly at night or during cloudy weather, making it challenging to provide a consistent energy supply without extensive energy storage solutions.

Solar panels typically convert only about 15-20% of sunlight into electricity, although research continues to improve this rate through methods like cooling and solar concentration (Frontiers in Energy Research) [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2022.937155/full]. The problem of intermittency, where solar output drops at night or during cloudy weather, can be addressed with battery storage systems, which store excess energy for later use (Arka360) [https://arka360.com/ros/solar-energy-intermittency-strategies].

Hydrokinetic energy, which uses the kinetic force of flowing water, offers a more reliable and consistent power output compared to solar in regions with abundant water resources like Zambia (Renewable Energy) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755008422000072]. Studies suggest that integrating hydrokinetic systems with battery storage can further enhance stability, making them suitable for rural and remote communities in Zambia (Heliyon) [https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(24)15694-0].

Given these limitations, it is important to explore alternative renewable energy sources that can offer greater consistency. Hydrokinetic energy offers a promising solution, particularly in regions like Zambia, where water resources are abundant. Unlike solar panels, hydrokinetic systems generate electricity by harnessing the movement of flowing water, allowing for a more stable and predictable power output that is less affected by daily or seasonal changes.

By utilizing the natural flow of the 28 identified high-flowing rivers, Zambia could tap into an estimated 6 GW of power, potentially supplying up to half of the nation’s energy demand. This approach not only reduces dependence on intermittent sources like solar but also contributes to a more resilient and reliable energy grid. Compared to solar, hydrokinetic systems generally have a lower land footprint and can operate continuously, although they may present challenges such as impacts on river ecosystems and the need for significant initial investment.

Overall, while no energy source is without drawbacks, investing in hydrokinetic energy could provide Zambia with a sustainable and dependable path toward meeting its growing electricity needs.

Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy Solutions: Renewable energy technologies, such as hydrokinetics and solar panels, provide notable ecological advantages over traditional fossil fuels, yet they are not without their own difficulties. Hydrokinetic devices make use of the energy from moving water to produce electricity, and they do so without the need for large and ecologically damaging dams. The fundamental benefit of this river hydrokinetics is that rivers can keep flowing, largely unimpeded, as they power these devices. But a downside remains, which is the potential impact on river life from operating the devices' noise, for example, and any physical presence they might have that could serve as a barrier for migration or other life-movement events. Scientists and engineers are now developing devices and operational methods that minimize these adverse impacts on river life forms.

When it comes to solar energy, photovoltaic panels can transmute our sun's energy directly into electricity, again with no greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the solar panel production process isn't entirely free of environmental costs. The trade-off in this case is for a more climate-friendly electricity generation, at least when compared to coal and gas. Unlike hydroelectric, you can make a solar farm pretty much anywhere, and although the footprint of solar panels is significant, they don't have to destroy sensitive ecosystems to get the job done. However, what goes up must come down, and a problematic aspect of the solar revolution is the question of what to do with all the panels when they reach the end of their roughly 30-year life spans. Although solar energy produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, the manufacturing and disposal of panels pose environmental challenges. After about 30 years, solar panels reach the end of their lifespan, raising questions about the safe management of toxic materials. Drawing on two decades of experience with NASA, I have seen firsthand how technological advances can solve immediate problems while creating new ones, an aspect that is often overlooked. Carefully assessing the full lifecycle and impacts of renewable technologies is essential for truly sustainable progress. (Source: NASA) As the world shifts toward renewable energy, we must address the environmental and social implications of our choices, considering the long-term effects of our actions on the planet and its inhabitants.

Both technologies advance cleaner energy production, and they need to be deployed in ways that will not result in unintended harm. For example, hydrokinetic devices must be engineered to allow fish to pass through unharmed, and to keep rivers healthy, much as if the devices were never there at all. And for solar power, a future where clean energy predominates cannot mean that our landscape is full of dilapidated and toxic "clean" technology. There must be a robust recycling program for solar panels and batteries.

In the grand scheme of things, hydrokinetics and solar panels are forms of renewable energy with comparatively low environmental impact, making them vital components of a sustainable 21st-century energy economy. But that doesn't mean they are completely benign. Like almost every other way of making power except perhaps for the treadmills of tiny mammals, they have some kind of impact. So while on balance they can be called "better," that's a balance to be struck during a discussion of any specific project.

Conclusion:

Zambia needs to address its power shortage through Lusat's Tiger Teams and their innovative hydrokinetics approach, combined with AI and IoT technologies for energy management. Hydrokinetics shows great promise for Zambia because it involves generating electricity from water flow without building large, costly, and environmentally damaging dams. It also offers a form of baseload power, meaning it can replace certain functions of the often-unreliable thermal power stations. On the other hand, solar power provides similar benefits but with a more efficient workflow than thermal plants. It can deliver power during cloudy days, and with residential or commercial energy storage using the panels of a household or building, it can supply electricity almost anytime it is needed.

If you compare solar and hydrokinetic systems side by side, considering both cost and efficiency, solar panels will probably come out ahead, especially in the early stages. They are far easier to install and maintain, and for the basic solar setups typically used here, the sun almost always shines in Zambia. But why choose solar panels alone? Isn’t that the simplest solution? If you’re looking to power something that doesn’t require constant operation, like a backup system, then solar would be the most straightforward route.

Trizet and Lusat's innovative approach to renewable energy has the potential to transform and stabilize Zambia's power sector. The energy generated by their novel hydrokinetic methods, coupled with a smart grid that efficiently manages energy use, could be game changers. Hydrokinetics with minimal environmental impact on aquatic life, and solar are the two main sources Zambia can leverage for a dependable future power supply.

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