The Civil Engineering Contractor September 2018 | Page 10

INFRASTRUCTURE AFRICA

EAST AFRICA

TANZANIA

The African Road Infrastructure and Investment Congress 2018 will be hosted in Nairobi .

EAST AFRICA

KENYA

African Road Infrastructure and Investment Congress 2018

Taking place in Nairobi , Kenya , from 29 to 31 October this year , is the African Road Infrastructure and Investment Congress 2018 . This is in response to a call earlier this year for African road development agencies to increase development efforts . Organised by the Bitumen Exchange , the Congress this year will explore the theme “ Accelerating Road Development ”.

The Congress will address such key issues as publicprivate partnership ( PPPs ) projects ; infrastructure projects that promote regional integration and competitiveness of countries ; latest technologies ; and financing challenges in the road and highway industry affecting sub-Saharan Africa .

According to Bitumen Exchange , the event will highlight more than 30 key opinion leaders from across the full spectrum of participants in the value chain . These opinion leaders will share their experiences via keynote addresses , study presentations , and panel discussions , to be followed by Q & A sessions after each .

The Q & A sessions will seek a healthy sharing of views relating to the implications of road development and investment ; exploring new and cutting edge technology to increase the performance of road applications ; recycling of materials elsewhere being used to great effect ; and how micro surfacing and crumbed rubber technology is making it easier for road agencies to maximise existing funds to achieve more .

Nairobitransport

Tanzania eyes inaugural wind farm

Tanzania ’ s first wind farm , costing USD300-million , is to be constructed by a local subsidiary of Australia ’ s Windlab . The 300MW Miombo Hewani wind farm was licensed to the company by the Tanzanian government .

Windlab Developments Tanzania obtained an environmental and social impact assessment certificate for the project and has announced that the project will be undertaken in phases . The initial phase will produce 100MW when complete , comprising up to 34 wind turbines and having a transmission line to the national electricity grid . The wind farm will be situated in the central part of the country at Makambako substation near Makambako town at the junction of Njombe , Iringa , and Mbeya .

Miombo Hewani positions Tanzania on the path to tapping the region ’ s wind resources to generate power , and the country now joins Kenya which already has a 300MW wind farm in its northern Turkana district . The certificate signed by government was the first to be issued in Tanzania for a wind farm .

The purpose of the new wind farm is to inject renewable electricity into the power mix of the national grid by September 2018 once the transmission line is complete line . Phase one of Miombo Hewani is expected to increase the national grid capacity by over 5 % and generate sufficient energy to power nearly one million homesteads .

In developing Miombo Hewani , Windlab aims to apply experience gained from working on over 50 wind energy projects across North America , Australia , and southern Africa . Windlab has also secured a grant from the foreign affairs ministry of Finland to fund the undertaking .

The wind pattern in the area is biased towards night-time and during the dry season , making the generation of electricity an ideal complement to the current and planned electricity generation mix . Less than one-third of Tanzania ’ s 55-million population has access to electricity . The country ’ s GDP growth rate has averaged 6 % over the past decade , creating demand for new investment in electricity generation . The government ’ s medium-term plan is to diversify electricity sources to natural gas , solar , wind , coal , and geothermal to reduce dependence on thermal power that depends on either diesel or heavy fuel oil .

8 - CEC September 2018