Tanzania’s energy demand is characterised by a low per capita consumption of commercial energy (petroleum and electricity) and a high dependence on non-commercial energies, including biomass fuels in the form of firewood, charcoal and bio-waste. Renewable energy technologies currently in use in the country include improved wood-fuel stoves and charcoal production practices, biogas, windmills, and solar thermal and photovoltaics (PV). The applications of these technologies are at various stages of development in terms of demonstration and commercialization.

Tanzania has no renewable energy policy at the moment but only the general energy policy framework for all kinds of energy.

The National Energy Policy (2003) objectives are to ensure availability of reliable and affordable energy supplies and their use in a rational and sustainable manner in order to support national development goals. The National Energy Policy, therefore, aims to establish an efficient energy production, procurement, transportation, distribution and end — use systems in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner (URT, 2003). It also supports research and development of renewable energy and promotes the use of efficient biomass and end-use technologies. The main elements of the policy are: [21]

policy, which is the main guidance for change, backed by legislation and regulation. The ministry also facilitates mobilisation of resources into areas where market forces fail to ensure adequate energy services. The policy put guidance for licensing operators, monitoring markets and performance; and applying any other necessary regulatory measures.

Within the Ministry of Energy and Minerals there is a Rural Energy Agency (REA) for rural electrification. The policy acknowledges that around 80% of the population has very low purchasing power and depends mainly on wood-fuel for cooking and kerosene for lighting, which have negative consequences to the environment and the quality of life, especially to the rural poor. Rural electrification is a case of long-term national interest and a prerequisite for a balanced socio-economic growth for all in Tanzania through enabling rural poor accessing sustainable clean energies.

However, energy policy has attracted criticism in different ways. Stakeholders feel that consideration of improving clean energy by rural poor needs to be on the application of appropriate technologies that are affordable, environmentally sound and well adapted to local needs as explained in the Policy. Also, while gender issues have received attention at micro level in terms of technological interventions such as cookstoves, biogas, solar cookers, and wood plantations, they have yet to be addressed in macro level policies. Women’s needs for energy vary depending on whether they are in urban or rural areas, their stage of economic development and whether they are economically active. Parikh (1995) makes a plea to include gender issues in macro level energy policies such as energy investment, imports and pricing. Also there is inadequate information and data on how the ongoing and planned power sector reform can be modified to address the existing challenges, particularly with regard to electrification of the poor (Karekezi and Kimani, 2002). A study by Barnes and Floor (1996) highlights constraints towards improving clean energy in rural development and these include the widespread inefficient production and use of traditional energy sources fuelwood and charcoal which pose economic, environmental, and health threats. Also the highly uneven distribution and use of modern energy sources such as electricity, petroleum products and liquefied or compressed natural gas, pose important issues of economics, equity, and quality of life. The policy does not provide adequate strategies on overcoming these. Many developing countries including Tanzania has general energy policies pertaining to the development of electricity, oil and renewable energy sub­sectors for the benefit of the public and the economy. However, the absence of sharply focused, pro-rural energy policy and/or their policy instruments has been the major challenges towards the observed stagnation of some initiatives like the biogas (Habtetsion and Tsighe, 2002). The Energy Policy formulation in Tanzania takes place in the context of great uncertainty, due to mainly pressures exerted by conflicting interests (Mwandosya and Luhanga 1993).

Within the Energy Policy, biogas has received a low profile or recognition. There is no specific policy statement to explain and strategies for the promotion of biogas technology in rural Tanzania; rather everything is dumped in the category of renewable energy. Omer and Fadalla (2003) recommends that biogas technology must be encouraged, promoted, invested, implemented, and demonstrated, but especially for remote rural areas.

The main challenges facing biogas technology is inappropriate institutional structure and/or gaps in the structure, in addition to lack of corporate culture; poor incentives; and, poor linkages among the various stakeholders concerned in energy for rural development (Habtetsion and Tsighe, 2002). Progressive government intervention is needed to shift reform process towards a more responsible development path of renewable energy (Wamukonya, 2004). Generally speaking, the database for the context of renewable energy in Tanzania is not well documented and the renewable energy technology including biogas is still at an infant stages. So many efforts have been done by individuals of which, most of them have not been documented. The financial capital coupled with poor technology (Mwerangi, 2008) and lack of sustainable institutional framework for renewable energy developments hinders the development of biogas. This trend tallies with Uddin (1999) comment that lack of policy mechanisms, institutional development and financing exist as major barriers for Thailand

Another policy issues is lack of credits. A high proportion of the respondents in this study area indicated high cost and that there were no credit facilities in the area of study. There is also an issue of awareness and culture. A study by Mwakaje (2005) show that a large number of people who have not accessed biogas technology especially from the Muslim community have a perception that biogas is a dirty thing. However, being close to Lomwe Secondary School in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania and observing physically the functioning of biolatrine, many neighbour households including the Muslims were motivated to adopt the technology. The challenge was the amount of waste to feed the biodigestor and of course the cost to incur. Improving credit accessibility may have significant impact on biogas adoption in Rungwe district and Tanzania at large. Factors influencing socio-political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects (Wustenhagen et al., 2007).