India: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Dr. Doto Biteko has met and held talks with the Executive Director of the International Solar Energy Development Institute (ISA), Dr. Ajay Mathur, headquartered in India, who has expressed ISA’s interest in investing in solar power projects in the country.
The talks between Dr. Biteko and Dr. Mathur were held in New Delhi, India, where Dr. Biteko participated in the India Energy Week which ran parallel to various meetings on energy.
“We invite you to come and invest in Tanzania, we need many electricity projects from different sources to be able to meet the needs of our people and what gives us the most inspiration is the special 300 mission plan we signed in January, 2025. In Tanzania, we should provide electricity to 8.3 million people by 2030”, said Dr. Biteko
He thanked ISA for seeing Tanzania as the right place for investment and explained that its job is to ensure that the country has many energy projects that will bring electricity sufficiency and promote development while emphasizing that the issue of having enough electricity is not about waiting for projects to be implemented now.
Regarding solar power projects in the country, Dr. Biteko said Tanzania has begun implementing a 150 megawatt solar power project in Kishapu district in Shinyanga region, starting with 50 megawatts, 100 megawatts will begin to be implemented after the completion of the first phase.
He said the Tanzania Electricity Corporation (TANESCO) has found three locations for solar power projects which are Zuzu, Dodoma (60 MW), Mkwese, Manyoni – Singida (199 MW) and Same, Kilimanjaro (50 MW) where he thanked ISA for agreeing to conduct a preliminary study in those areas.
Dr. Biteko has asked ISA to identify areas where they need to invest so that experts can start working on them.
The Executive Director of the ISA Institute, Dr. Ajay Mathur, told Dr. Biteko that the Institute wants to invest in large-scale solar power projects in the country, with the impetus they received from the Mission 300 Summit which expressed Africa’s intention to provide electricity to 300 million people, including Tanzania.
He said ISA works in 122 countries around the world and collaborates with various governments in the implementation of solar power projects in various ways including providing training to locals on the manufacture of solar power equipment, helping the government develop policies that facilitate investment in solar energy, building the capacity of solar energy engineers and energy policy makers in various areas related to the development of Solar Energy.
Mr. Mathur said that the ISA Institute has already started working in Tanzania by establishing a Solar Technology Applications Resource Center (STAR-C) which will have various responsibilities including developing local experts and conducting research that will support the implementation of solar energy projects taking into account our country’s environment, preparing curricula, renovating and constructing laboratory buildings for research and teaching, purchasing equipment for teaching and testing the quality standards of solar energy equipment.
The center, which has been built at the Arusha Technical College (ATC), will be launched in June, 2025.
In Africa, ISA has established STAR C centers in Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Ivory Coast and Ghana where since its establishment, the centers have trained thousands of experts in the solar energy sector.
The talks between Dr. Biteko and Dr. Mathur were attended by the Tanzanian Ambassador to India, Mrs. Anisa Mbega and the Commissioner for Electricity and Renewable Energy, Engineer Innocent Luoga.
