Tanzania to exploit geothermal power capacity

mwathai · 2012-11-26T08:18:47+00:00

TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA'S second largest economy, has turned to geothermal power to meet the increasing demand for power in the country. ===== TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA'S second largest economy, has turned to geothermal power to meet the increasing demand forpower in the country. Power shortagesare a mill on the country economic progress. The country will drill its firstgeothermal power wells in Mbeya next year. The country has the potential to generate some 650 MW of geothermal power. However, it will start with 200 MW implementedin two phases. The first phase will produce 100 MW or 12.5 per cent of thecountry’s power output by 2016. The second phase, which starts in 2015, willload another 100 MW to the national grid by 2018. It costs an estimated US$2 00 million to develop a 100 MW geothermal plantat current prices. Therefore to develop the first 200 MW will cost an estimatedUS$400 million. This means that for Tanzania to develop its full potential itwill require more than US$1.2 billion. Already she has applied for a total of US$50 million from the AfDB tofinance the project. The funds, we have reliably learnt will be approved by Februarynext year. Tanzania currently produces an estimated 800 MW, way below power demand, whichis expected to reach 1 583 MW by 2015. Her major source of power is hydro vulnerableto erratic weather However she is looking at developing a mix of powergeneration sources. Apart from hydro, and geothermal the country is alsolooking at producing power from natural gas following big discoveries offshore. Other sources to be developed simultaneous with the geothermal sources are wind and solar sources. Tanzania is the second Africancountry to exploit geothermal power after Kenya. Kenya is the giant in Africain exploiting geothermal power to meet domestic demand. To date she generates morethan 150 MW of geothermal power but expects to raise this capacity to more than1,000 MW by 2016. Kenya estimated potential is 10.000 MW of geothermal power. Sources indicate that there's a huge undiscovered potential in Tanzania. Signs that Tanzania was considering exploiting geothermal energy emerged inearly September when the Tanzanian Pre3sident, Jakaya Kikwete, visited Kenyaand spent time visiting the Ol karia Geothermal wells. . Geothermal energy is the natural heat stored within the earth’s crust. Theenergy is manifested on the earth’s surface in the form of fumaroles, hotsprings and hot and altered grounds. To extract this energy, wells are drilledto tap steam and water at high temperatures (250-350°C) and pressures (600-1200PSI) at depths of 1-3 km. For electricity generation, the steam is piped to aturbine, which rotates a generator to produce electrical energy. Eaers

Thread starter mwathai
Start date Nov 26, 2012

mwathai

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Tanzania to exploit geothermal power capacity

mwathai

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