Author

Gary Zieff

Africa goes solar… (if the utilities let them, and if they find money)

Following up from my last post. Other areas of interest at the World Bank’s Energy Week conference included rural electrification. Grid connection is notoriously poor throughout Africa. Tanzania, for example, is around 22% depending on whom you talk to. In addition, just because a community has a grid penetration, it doesn’t mean everyone in that community has power at their house. Connections are expensive. The waiting list for the utility to make the connection is long.

Often time people take it upon themselves to make their own connection. Even if they do have power, it might not be reliable. Kenyan Power and Lighting Company is estimated to have around 11,000 outages per month. The other option for people to address lack of (or unreliable) grid connection is to support it with solar PV or fuel based generators. These two technologies support communities, can add capacity to the grid (if connected), and provide a potentially cheaper way to provide power to end-users (factoring in the implied costs associated with transmission) .

04/17/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Energizing and Electrifying Emerging Markets with Renewables

written by Gary Zieff

Last week I went to the World Bank’s Energy Week in DC. It was an exciting event in which the World Bank hosted “energy and finance industry executives, senior donor and developing country government officials, stakeholders and leading-edge thinkers of the energy sector”. Seminars discussed energy efficiency, rural electrification, alternative energy resources, and climate change. The Global Energy Assessment was an interesting topic discussed by US renewable energy trade organization and private sector. If you’ve been paying attention to renewable energy there was nothing new, except the passion to engage the emerging markets.

04/08/2009 4 comments

Renewable Energy

How to do CleanTech in Africa

written by Gary Zieff

Working in Africa requires patience, local friends, patience, and patience. I forget what the World Bank rating is for Tanzania on ease of setting up a business, but it takes a certain luxury of time and money. The process is mostly transparent, although it helps to have a good advocate or lawyer (there is a difference in Tanzania) to assist in creating the necessary documents and then submitting them to the government. Lines in Dar to submit the paperwork can be long and confusing, so again it helps to have local assistance. The basic costs start to finish is about $1000.00 USD.

dissigno’s Tanzania project may begin by setting up the entity. We have several recommendations for lawyers garnered from local contacts and networking in-country. Face to face meeting helps immensely as telephones and e-mails are either ignored or used only to set up a time and place for a meeting.

A. Immediate – Implementation

1. Setting up an entity – notes from several lawyers include:

a. Having a TZ national on the board, with a share stake makes formation easier and faster. The number of foreign versus TZ nationals determines whether the company will be identified as a

national or foreign company. A wholly foreign company is deemed as removing value from the country. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the final solution includes using someone that you trust.

b. The recommendation that we incorporate as a national versus a foreign company (more board members that are TZ than foreign) seemed less important to us. The US and Tanzania do not have a tax treaty. Thus, if a US company simply registered to work in TZ (rather than create a TZ entity) the TZ government would be allowed to examine the US company’s books.

c. A registered company can then register with the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC) The TIC was created to encourage investment in TZ, and offers many incentives. 0% VAT on capital goods, low or deferred income taxes, easy work and living permits, easy repatriation of profit, protection from nationalization, are among the many financial incentives to encourage investment. However, the incentives are different between foreign and national companies.

d. The cost to form the entity is about $1000.00 including the lawyer fees, forms, state fees, and stamps. There are other indirect costs, such as office space that must reflect a three-year commitment and employees among others. It can take anywhere form 1-3 months to complete. If articles of incorporation are prepared ahead of time the time may be shorter.

10/22/2008 3 comments