Tanzania needs $1.9 billion to boost power generation

• 8 years ago (2016-05-26)

Africa 306 Renewables 757

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“Energy is economy,” Majaliwa told the 51 ^st annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which opened this week in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. He went onto say that Tanzania needed adequate, affordable and reliable energy supply in order to give the country middle-income status by 2025.

However, the funding for projected power projects exceeds the existing government’s fiscal abilities. Therefore, Majaliwa said that in order to “attract private capital, the government is improving the institutional set-up, and the legal and regulatory frameworks”. All this is in the hope of tapping into Tanzania’s abundant energy resources, which include natural gas, coal, uranium, hydro and renewable energies. Estimates state that Tanzanian natural gas could be around 57.25 trillion standard cubic feet, while its coal reserves are around 1.9 billion tonnes, hydropower was rated at 4.7 GW, uranium deposits of 90 kg million and geothermal power generation potential of more than 5000 MW.

Currently, Majaliwa estimates that biomass – largely in the form of charcoal and firewood – makes up 85 per cent of Tanzania’s energy balance.

During the four-day meeting, the AfDB Group is also expected to unveil its new agenda for the continent’s economic transformation, The New Deal on Energy for Africa 2016-2025.