The US$5.227m project is financed by Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and is expected to unlock the existing barriers to deployment of biomass energy and utilization for agro-industries in the country.
Speaking at the launch in Dar es Salaam yesterday, UNIDO acting country representative in Tanzania, Zumira Rodriguez said that energy from agricultural wastes is one of the cleanest renewable and efficient that is abundantly available in the country.
"We are aware that although biomass electricity share in the national grid accounts for around 2% of the electricity generated in the country, the resources remain largely untapped and could assist in alleviating the problem of access to power particularly for rural communities and for agro-industrial processes" she said.
However, a number of constraints exist which have made it difficult for the smooth and sustainable development of resources. Various constraints exist, ranging from awareness lack of appropriate and affordable technologies, high start up capital costs and inability to prepare bankable business plans" She added.
Rodriguez mentioned other constraints as lack of available support for developers as well as access to technologies and information on the establishment of biomass energy systems.
'Others are more related to lack of appropriate models to manage complicity of biomass energy interventions. These were some of the gaps that were identified at the time of inception of the project" she said.
She noted "Through this project, Tanzania will be able to create a learning centre for exploitation and implantation of agro waste conversion to generate energy for productive applications. The centre will network with other regional initiatives that UNIDO has, such as the EAC renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre that currently under final stages to be functional"
She went on to say that the project will be able to find appropriate solutions that will help to accelerate the development of the sector and enable Tanzanians to move ahead in the quest for providing sustainable energy access for all.
On his part, UNIDO Project Coordinator Emmanuel Michael said that Tanzania's economy is dominated by agriculture which contributes around 25.5% to the GDP, therefore un-utilized biomass stemming from agricultural activities can be used to generate up to 650MW of power. Currently, less than 40MW has been exploited.
"UNIDO is implementing this project through funding from GEF on USD 5.227m. In addition, the Rural Energy Agency, TIB, National Ranching Company and Mohamed Enterprises Tanzania Limited pledged a total of support of more than USD26m as co-financing" he said.
Credit: The Guardian
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