While agricultural activities are a major drain on water resources in Rwanda, its high population growth continually escalates energy–water–food–land nexus pressures. With 13.03 million inhabitants on a 26,336 km² area which translates to be 495 inhabitants per km², Rwanda has the second‐highest population density in Africa because of its high annual population growth rate of 2.95%. Access to clean drinking water, energy, and food to meet the demographic needs in Rwanda are fundamental, but this is unlikely to be the case by 2050 due to the anticipated land scarcity. Land stress is endangering energy, water, and food security, and this works against ecological sustainable development. This research analyzed the ecological balance of human activities in Rwanda and how policymakers have increasingly emphasized on energy–water–food nexus sectors separately without integrating land usage and population growth which poses an even more critical situation if left unattended to. The research study recommends the Multi‐Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) method as being appropriate to support the transition toward a sustainable economy because it is used to optimize resources, generate focused decisions, actions, investments, and policies that would combat nexus pressures and promote ecological sustainable development.

Green information technology systems (Green ITS) are proposed as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and other environmental impacts while supporting ecological sustainable development. The Green ITS concept combines both Green information technology (IT) and Green information system (IS) applications. The Green ITS concept has the potential to combat the carbon emission problem globally, beyond simply Green IT, because it combines management, organizational, and technology dimensions of climate change mitigation and adaptation, especially if supported by global policy. Examples include life cycle assessment software for measuring GHG emissions, and software for monitoring GHG emissions. Previous studies on environmental burdens such as GHGs, water and air pollution, energy losses and other forms of waste alongside socio-economic dependent variables including renewable resources and climate change policies are reviewed and synthesized. The research analysis conjointly points to the usage of renewable resources such as solar and wind as a critical strategy to scale back GHG emissions and enhance green growth. Empirical evidence shows that developed countries can reduce their carbon emissions while developing countries can utilize carbon emission-free technologies as they aspire to achieve development. The two significant benefits of the Green ITS strategy are first, to provide the environmental benefits of reducing greenhouse emissions and other environmental impacts and second, to enhance global green growth, which supports achievement of ecological sustainable development. Green ITS tools support achievement of the UN SDG 7, 13 and 15, which emphasize clean energy, climate action and ecological sustainable development, respectively. Future research directions include the formulation of a strategy to combat GHGs and design of a system to monitor carbon emissions and other waste remotely.

Most sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations are governed by traditional economic models of using varied varieties of capital (including human), technological and natural approaches to supply goods and services. This has undoubtedly led to annual economic growth of about 3.2% in several African nations and higher per capita income as some of the major benefits, which have improved the standards of living and social wellbeing but conjointly have led to environmental degradation. In response to the environmental degradation problem, while benchmarking against international policies, this article evaluates approaches to economic development, environmental management, and energy production in the context of climate change. Case studies consider the mine-dependent nations of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the agriculture-dependent nation of Rwanda. In Zambia and DRC, energy efficiency in the mining and metals industries could increase the electrification rate in Zambia and DRC by up to 50%. Additional industrial utilization of solar or wind energy is key to a stable energy supply, economic development and environmental protection. In Rwanda, population growth and land constraints point to economic growth and agricultural improvements as the key to sustainability and sustainable development. These case studies emphasize resource optimization, energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment, strategies to reduce biodiversity loss and environmental degradation, and the improvement of social wellbeing for both present and future generations to achieve an ecologically enhanced sub-Saharan Africa.

Fault detection and isolation are important tasks to improve the protection system of low voltage direct current (LVDC) networks. Nowadays, there are challenges related to the protection strategies in the LVDC systems. In this paper, two proposed methods for fault detection and isolation of the faulty segment through the line and bus voltage measurement were discussed. The impacts of grid fault current and the characteristics of protective devices under pre-fault normal, under-fault, and post-fault conditions were also discussed. It was found that within a short time after fault occurrence in the network, this fault was quickly detected and the faulty line segment was efficiently isolated from the grid, where this grid was restored to its normal operating conditions. For analysing the fault occurrence and its isolation, two algorithms with their corresponding MATLAB/SIMULINK platforms were developed. The findings of this paper showed that the proposed methods would be used for microgrid protection by successfully resolving the fault detection and grid restoration problems in the LVDC microgrids, especially in rural villages.

Faults in electrical networks are among the key factors and sources of network disturbances. Control and automation strategies are among the key fault clearing techniques responsible for the safe operation of the system. Several researchers have revealed various constraints of control and automation strategies such as a slow dynamic response, the inability to switch the network on and off remotely, a high fault clearing time and loss minimization. For a system with wind energy technologies, if the power flow of a wind turbine is perturbed by a fault, the intermediate circuit voltage between the machine side converter and line side converter will rise to unacceptably high values due to the accumulation of energy in the DC link capacitor. To overcome the aforementioned issues, this paper used MATLAB simulations and experiments to analyze and validate the results. The results revealed that fault ride through capability with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) viewer software, Active Servo software and wind sim packages are more adaptable to the variations of voltage sag, voltage swell and wind speed and avoid loss of synchronism and improve power quality. Furthermore, for protection purposes, a DC chopper and a crowbar should be incorporated into the management of excess energy during faults and a ferrite device included for the reduction of the electromagnetic field.

The Rift Valley region of Sub-Saharan Africa represents a promising area for the development of small (<5MW) hydropower resources. This study compiles data from government and UN agency reports to analyze different development outlooks. The study found that there has been a rapid deployment of small hydropower in the last 10 years. From the current total deployed small hydro of 47.5 MW, 16.5MW (35%) were deployed from 1957 to 1984 while the remaining 31 MW (65%) were deployed from 2007 to 2017. While all systems constructed prior to 1985 are grid-connected, one third of the 24 facilities constructed after 2007 are connected to off-grid systems. The study provides an overview of the economic incentives for developing small hydropower systems in Rwanda and the potential contribution of that development to Rwanda’s electrification goals.