RE: The silence says it all9 Nov 2020 08:06
This report is produced within the STEEP-RES (Socio-Technical-Ecological Evaluation of Potential Renewable Energy Sources) research project, supported by the Swedish Futura Foundation. STEEP-RES was initiated in 2009 as a collaboration between Chalmers university of Technology in Sweden, the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique. The project aims to promote enhanced access to electricity in Tanzania and Mozambique through the utilization of locally available renewable energy sources. OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND This report gives an overview of the resource distribution of wind and solar energy sources in Mozambique and Tanzania. The objectives are (1) to display resource availability of wind and solar energy and (2) to evaluate resource estimations based on remote sensing techniques (NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy, SSE) by comparing with local time-series of ground measurement data. The results are discussed from the perspective of energy extraction by modern technologies. The report is a descriptive synthesis of previously sampled and presented data carried out by researchers, professionals within national meteorology institutes, and by NASA (SSE). The SSE database is a satellite- and model based product, available on the web, in support of resource assessments of renewable energy sources, i.e. solar and wind energy. The studied region comprises Tanzania and Mozambique, two countries which experience low electrification rates where only 2-3% of the rural population has access to electricity. In both countries economy is growing and governments are stable. Significant policy efforts are launched towards rural electrification and restructuring of the energy sectors aim for a higher influence of private actors and increased use of local energy sources. Moreover, the region are offered additional opportunities through the prognosis of an approaching demographic dividend where the working age part of the population will be larger than ever, as a result of decreased birth numbers (Bloom et al. 2007). The situation opens great possibilities for economic development where the access to modern energy may constitute a key factor (UNDP 2007). Both countries cover vast areas and extensions of national electricity grids in order to reach remote towns and rural settlements are tremendously costly undertakings. In response, parallel electrification is carried out through decentralized grids and, at the micro-level, autonomous systems. It has been shown that diesel generators, which are often the power sources for the decentralized grids, carries major problems related to the costs and logistics of fuel (Ahlborg and Hammar 2011). Along with micro hydropower, solar photovoltaic and wind power are examples of renewable energy technologies which may provide locally generated electricity. Since recently the use
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