A Review on the Renewable Energy Resources for Rural Application in Tanzania

Abstract

United Republic of Tanzania with a surface area of about 945,087 square kilometres is located in East Africa bordering the Indian Ocean to the East, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia to the South, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi to the West and Uganda and Kenya to the North. The country has a population of 41,915,799 [Economic survey, 2009], of which 21,311,150, equivalent to 50.8 percent are female, while 20,604,730 equivalents to 49.2 percent are male. Tanzania mainland has a population of 40,683,294, while Tanzania Zanzibar has a population of 1,232,505. Population distribution shows that 31,143,439 people, equivalent to 74.3 percent of the population live in rural areas, while 10,772,360 people live in urban areas. The population is based on the growth rate of 2.9 percent per annum estimated during the 2002 population and housing census of 2002. Geographically, the country lies between Latitudes 1-120S and Longitude 20-410. Climatically, the country is tropical, hot with arid central plateau surrounded by Lake Victoria in the North-West, Lake Tanganyika in the West, temperate highlands in the North and South; the Coastal plain facing the Indian Ocean and Mount Kilimanjaro being the highest mountain in Africa. About 62,000 square kilometers [Casmiri, 2009] of the land is covered by water, including the three fresh-trans-boundary lakes of Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa. Woodlands account for more than 33,500 square kilometers and arable land; land suitable for agriculture is concentrated in Southern, North-East and Central part of the Country, covering more than 44 million hectares.