Cooperation agreement for geothermal exploration at specific sites in Tanzania
A new cooperation agreement between NDF and ICEIDA as donors and the Tanzania Geothermal Development Company is to help on exploring three geothermal areas in Tanzania.
Already announced in mid-December last year, “a cooperation agreement has been signed for support to geothermal development in Tanzania under the joint Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and ICEIDA Geothermal Exploration Project. The main objective of the Geothermal Exploration Project* is to assist countries in East Africa to enhance geothermal knowledge and capacity in order to enable further actions on geothermal utilization in the respective countries. This includes support during the high risk exploration phase of geothermal development and capacity building.
The agreement was signed with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Tanzania but the implementing agency is the Tanzania Geothermal Development Company (TGDC). The objective of the cooperation project is to enhance knowledge of selected geothermal areas in Tanzania, including Luhoi, Ngozi and Kiejo-Mbaka, with identification of potential sites for exploration drilling if applicable and improved capacity in Tanzania to advance geothermal energy production in the country. The project places particular emphasis on capacity building for Tanzanian experts, which is both carried out through hand-on training during surface exploration as well as with lectures on methods and interpretation. The project will also assist TGDC to build up their capacity in project management and planning as well as geothermal drilling.
A few international institutions are currently working on geothermal development with Tanzania, including African Development Bank, the World Bank and UNEP. The ICEIDA/NDF support has been organized in coordination with other programmes and at the beginning of December ICEIDA participated in a workshop organized by the World Bank in Dar es Salaam where the project was introduced. ”
*More about the Geothermal Exploration Project announced in 2012 can be found here.
Note: The Iceland International Development Agency (ICEIDA) has been shut down and all projects have been moved to the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs from and with January 1, 2016. Official international development cooperation on behalf of Iceland is carried out by the new Directorate for International Development Cooperation at the Ministry.