Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "DRC plans to build world's largest hydro dam as Ukraine war shifts global energy demands | DW News" video.

The economic 'logic' of Inga III is up-side down. Forget hydrogen. It's too costly to ship. Instead: reduce alumina to aluminum, mass produce ammonia and ammonium nitrate, run chlor-alkali plants -- direct reduction of iron ore to sponge. "Simandou, a 110-kilometer range of hills deep in the hinterland of Guinea in Western Africa, boasts the world's largest untapped iron ore reserves." These are all economically rational projects that would, obviously, massively stimulate local employment. (Daughter industries) If extra power is available, sell it as electricity to neighboring nations. All of the industries detailed above ^^^ are power pigs that would otherwise consume traditional fuels when produced elsewhere. The plants, themselves, could easily be erected near the coast and along the river. Iceland built an alumina reduction plant and its associated hydro-power dam. It's a money spinner -- all the way around. "Karahnjukavirkjun is a Hydropower plant in Eastern Iceland, designed to 4600 GWh annually to serve Alcoa's aluminium smelter east of Reydarfjordur..."
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Fox, she's an electrician, not an EE. The two careers are commonly conflated in the 3rd World. The DRC needs electricians far more than it needs electrical engineers, BTW. EEs don't run plants -- they design them. Power Engineers run plants -- but not tiny ones. Her plant is but a bump up from a Honda generator. It's an off-the-shelf canned design -- oriented entirely for the 3rd World. And yes, I'm impressed. She's got the 'right stuff.' There are simply not enough DRC citizens with her gumption.
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@kennethferland5579 I really like the direct reduction of ore to iron sponge because it produces less slag than coke (CO) reduction... and clean skies... and no (met coal) mining fatalities.... Iron sponge is in demand -- everywhere. It also must lead to the DRC becoming a viable steel producer --> electrically (vacuum) melted premium steels. Every market wants them. The prize goes to the boys with the lowest cost electric power. The DRC, itself, produces a lot of minerals that could be refined/reduced with hydro-power. Suddenly, that nation would have a shot at building out its railroad grid, power grid, Internet. Giving free power to hick farmers does not advantage them. Plugging them into the rest of the world --> THAT would transform their lives.
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