THE National Development Corporation
(NDC) is reported to have entered into a joint venture for development
of a 132 million US dollars (about 238bn/-) 50 megawatts wind power
project in Singida Region.
The project, known as Geo Wind Power
Tanzania Limited, is to be financed by the Exim Bank of China. NDC has
60 per cent stake in the firm, while Tanesco owns 20 per cent and Power
Pool East Africa Limited has the remaining 20 per cent.
It is expected that the project would
undergo gradual expansion in future after completion of the first phase
with the generation capacity of 50MW and connecting it to the national
grid. Wind power to be generated in Singida will be extracted from air
flow using wind turbines to produce electrical power.
Wind energy had for many years been used
as an alternative to fossil fuels - it is plentiful, renewable, clean,
produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation and uses little
land.
Experts say the effects of wind power on
the environment are generally less problematic than those from other
power sources such as coal, diesel, hydro and nuclear. Large wind farms
consist of thousands of individual wind turbines which are connected to
the electric power transmission network.
In some countries, including Denmark
more than a third of its electricity from wind. There are many benefits
associated with the proposed wind power project apart from mere
generation of electricity.
These include giving relief to the
government in spending money on importation of fuel for power
generation. Officials with the ministry of energy and minerals say that
at least 2,200 people are going to get employment.
The project is also expected to generate over 23.2 million US dollars in government revenue.
It is our hope that those responsible
for implementation of the project are going to act swiftly because it
had been in the drawing boards for quite some time. It should have
started yesterday.
