Energy unlock Development
Energy unlocks livelihood options and is a core element of sustainable development. Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy is critical hence set as Sustainable Development Goal 7.
Comparison of Pathways: Fossil vs RE
Recent scenarios studies show that to meet National Energy demand by 2050, implementing the PSMP 2020 ( 104.7 billion USD by 2050) will be more expensive than a Clean Energy Transition Tanzania scenario (CETT, 103.5 billion USD by 2050 ) that reaches 100 RE % energy in 2050.
Choose your way:
Navigating Pathway-dependences
Pathways towards attaining the goal of energy access for all are determined by the source used for power genera-tion which is Renewable Energy (RE) or Fossil fuel based ( i.e. coal, fossil gas and other fuels). The pathway selected is of importance as energy investments are expensive and last for many years therefore cannot be changed readily. Furthermore the pathway is accompanied by infrastruc-tures to support it such as grid infrastructure, pipelines and more, these infrastructure limit flexibility of changing path-ways in future. There are several scenarios, visions and policies envisioning a pathway for Tanzania towards energy access for all. The national energy policy 2015 envision a pathway of mixed RE and fossil-based fuel with significant RE contribution. Current guiding plan of the energy sector (Powers System Masterplan 2020: PSMP 2020) pathways is fossil fuel dominated by increasing role of coal and fossil gas in the energy mix meanwhile not appropriately planning to increase the role of renewable energy. Most recent scenarios studies for Tanzanian energy futures show that a fast upscaling of renewable energy (RE) is more cost-effective than relying on fossil-fuel based pathway for en-hanced energy access(IRENA 2021, Clean Energy Transition Tanzania 2022). The use of RE is shown to be more cost effective at installation and operation with more affordable electricity and can effectively cater to the local challenge of energy access in rural areas.
100 % RE Scenarios are cheaper for Tanzania than the fossil-fuel-based Power System
(This section is part of the a Policy Brief that analysis and compare cost and risks of Renewable vs. Fossil Energy in Tanzania. Learn more about it here: https://cantz.or.tz/publications/23 )