Power – Mwanza Project 2016-2017

In November 2011 the German City of Wuerzburg and the Tanzanian city of Mwanza signed a formal framework agreement for a climate partnership. Being one of the 50 so called Municipal Climate Partnerships, Wuerzburg and Mwanza aim to jointly tackle the effects of climate change.

The partnership is centred on the implementation of socially friendly and economically efficient means of power production. Since the first assessment of the situation of the Tanzanian energy supply system in 2013, the use of solar energy has been recommended due to the high and steady solar insolation. This leaves Tanzania with the chance of a socioeconomic development with low carbon emissions.

Four solar energy projects have been installed on public buildings to showcase the advantages of solar energy. Additionally the projects make a tangible contribution towards a sustainable energy supply of the City of Mwanza. The power needed from the national grid is being reduced provided that TANESCO gives his consent, potential surplus production could even be fed into the national grid.

Thanks to the capacity building programme, in which local experts are being given a technical education, operation and maintenance of the solar systems can be provided on-site.

The four solar energy projects show that solar energy can be used for household consumption as well as a solution for the national grid by installing large scale solar energy plants. It is cheaper, more reliable and effective than the conventional technologies, like diesel generators or hydro sources. The installation realized by the Wuerzburg-Mwanza partnership are:  7kWp solar photovoltaic plant at City Radio  40kWp solar photovoltaic plant at Nyamagana Hospital  15kWp solar photovoltaic plant at Mkolani Secondary School, and  45kWp solar photovoltaic plant at the City Hall.