The government is expected to start implementing wind power projects as well as solar power in some regions of Tanzania including Shinyanga and Njombe. Photo | Save energy.
Dar es Salaam. While the effects of climate change continue to manifest themselves in Tanzania, including electricity distribution caused by the lack of rain in the sources of energy production, the country still has high goals in the energy sector.
Among those goals is to increase the use of renewable energy to put ourselves in a good position to have sustainable sources of energy.
The energy comes from solar, wind, small waterfalls, geothermal, and geothermal sources.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan who was addressing the 27th International Climate Conference (COP27) held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in November 2022 said, among other things, Tanzania will increase the use of renewable energy by 80 percent by 2025.
“We will continue to increase renewable energy sources from 60 percent in 2015 to 80 percent in 2025,” said President Samia.
However, there are still questions as to whether Tanzania can reach that level considering that there are three years left.
Some energy stakeholders who spoke to Nukta (www.nukta.co.tz) said it is possible to reach that level if some things are done including a political will.
The Executive Director of the non-governmental organization for renewable energy issues of Elico Foundation, Sisty Basil says there is a possibility of reaching those percentages due to the great power used by the Government in the construction of energy and renewable energy projects, especially in rural areas.
“There are many projects being implemented such as the Nyerere dam, the solar power project in Dodoma and Shinyanga and the wind project in Makambako. I believe it will contribute to reaching 80 percent even though its implementation is long-term,” said Basil.
Basil says that they as energy stakeholders are collaborating with the Government to implement various sustainable energy projects especially in rural areas to increase access to energy in the country.
“We are collaborating with the Ministry of Energy to change people’s attitudes that there is no place where electricity cannot reach, we are also doing research on the use of electricity for cooking with ethanol gas, this is part of our contribution,” says Basil.
The Energy Policy of 2015 has emphasized putting efforts in developing the renewable energy sector up to 50 percent in 2025 in order to stimulate the availability of energy production in the country.
The Chairman of the Tanzania Renewable Energy Association (Tarea), Engineer Prosper Magali, says that the absence of a renewable energy policy is one of the factors that hold back the sector’s contribution to energy availability.
