Browsing: renewables in Africa

• Only 38 percent of Tanzania is connected to electricity. 
• Kenya ranks third in Africa in wind energy generation.
• Global net zero goals still off track with growing fossil fuel investments.

Tanzania does not produce enough electricity to meet its growing domestic demand. And this is despite having diverse renewable energy resources including hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind.

The country’s power sector is monopolized by state-owned Tanzania Electricity Supply Company Limited (TANESCO). The utility owns and controls almost all of the country’s energy transmission network and over half of its generating capacity.

Currently, Tanzania’s total power installed capacity is 1,602MW split into Hydroelectric (568MW), thermal (951.6MW) and 82.4MW from other renewables.

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Solar and biofuels

According to TANESCO, Tanzania’s electricity generation comes mostly from natural gas at 48 percent. Hydro sources account for 31 percent of the energy mix.  Petrol contributes 18 …

Into a menacing economic quick sand African economies have been sinking, taking hefty blows from numerous unprecedented challenges birthed by the overarching global crisis. The status quo has instigated a clarion call to cushion them from dipping further beneath the horizon, by casting different viable iron rods, as the ‘one shoe fits all’ approach is not feasible due the dynamic nature of African economies. Inarguably, Africa has not been left unscathed amid the ongoing global ‘polycrisis’, as described in the 2023 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report, to mean  a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects, such that the overall impact exceeds the sum of each part.

In light of this, on day three of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, UN Secretary General António Guterres in his speech, stated that at present the world faces “a category five” storm of challenges that need urgent action. These include …