From 3rd to 7th June, ESECA project consortium organised its fourth business mission to Africa - this time to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), with the aim of establishing contacts of interest in that market and generating new opportunities for European companies in the renewable energy and smart grids sectors. 4 European companies from the energy sector participated in the mission.

Tanzania has important renewable energy resources (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydropower), although the degree of connection to the grid is limited, a situation that is particularly acute in rural areas. The process that the country is undertaking towards the energy transition and the forecast of a rapid increase in electricity demand in the coming years requires urgent investments in renewable generation and transmission systems, and provides opportunities of interest for manufacturers in the development of these infrastructures, as well as in the deployment of isolated self-consumption systems with storage and sustainable mobility solutions.

On the first day of the mission, the ESECA consortium organised a workshop with presentations from the leading entities in the country's energy sector: the Ministry of Energy, TANESCO (grid operator) and TAREA (Tanzania Renewable Energy Association), whose representatives presented the current situation, priorities and business potential of the Tanzanian energy market. The European companies showcased their capabilities, their range of technological solutions and their potential fit with the needs of the sector. After the presentations, a B2B meeting session was organised between speakers and workshop attendees to identify synergies and specific opportunities for collaboration.

The following day, the European delegation had the opportunity to visit a rooftop PV self-consumption installation deployed by Davis & Shirtliff, learn about eMo Mobility's electric mobility solutions and meet representatives of TAREA and GadgetroniX, providers of turnkey self-consumption with storage solutions for hospitals.

The mission concluded with the delegation's participation in the Renewable Energy Week (REW), organised by TAREA on 6th and 7th June in Dar es Salaam under the theme "Renewable Energy for Inclusive and Green Economy". The event brought together key players in the local energy sector and combined a conference with several sessions on the current situation, challenges and enabling technologies for the energy transition in Tanzania, an exhibition area and a networking space to foster collaboration.

This brought the cycle of business missions to sub-Saharan African countries to a close, having taken the ESECA consortium to Senegal, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania over the past year with a total participation of 46 European companies from the energy sector and a clearly positive balance in terms of knowledge of the sector and the needs of the countries visited, contacts made with agents of interest and opportunities identified for follow-up in the short-medium term.

European Sustainable Energy Cluster partnership for Africa (ESECA) is a consortium made up of five European clusters (ACE, MEDEE, LE2C, MetaIndustry4 and ECPE) from Spain, France, Italy and Germany. Between them, they bring together around 550 organisations and 290 SMEs. ESECA's main aim is to foster business collaboration between European companies in the renewable energy and power generation, distribution and transmission sectors, in order to develop a joint internationalisation plan with common objectives towards sub-Saharan African markets (Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda).