Sustain – Tanzania

Swiss Partners

Sustain Switzerland GmbH

Tanganyka Blue
Severin Spring

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

Local Partner

Project Type:

Rollout project

Technology:

Photovoltaics

Country:

Tanzania

Project Status:

Ongoing

Project Start:

2024

End of Project:

2026

Contract:

2023.09

Swiss Contribution

SUSTAIN Switzerland is a Swiss venture builder focusing on sustainable aquaculture ventures in East Africa. SUSTAIN invests time and money in companies & startups which are involved in the development of a sustainable aquaculture value chain in East Africa. The company has experience in the establishment of remote fish farming facilities with integrated solar power systems.

Description

The aquaculture sector in remote tropical regions such as Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, faces significant challenges with limited and unreliable access to electricity and inefficient resource utilization. This leads to high production costs and limited investment opportunities in local aquaculture businesses. These obstacles have hindered the growth of the fish farming sector in those regions, despite the increasing demand for fish caused by population growth and declining wild fish catches.

This REPIC rollout project focuses on the commercialization of AQUASMART an energy and resource efficiency concept for tropical aquaculture operations which has been prototyped during the REPIC pilot project ‘The Tanganyika Aquahub‘. During this REPIC Rollout project AQUASMART will be further developed and implemented into the scale up of Tanganyika Blue, the first commercial Native Species Aquaculture cage culture operation in Tanzania at Lake Tanganyika. The farm aims to reach fully integrated operations including its own hatchery, grow-out facilities and ice-based cold-chain infrastructure. The incorporation of a 55kWp solar PV system and the AQUASMART resource and energy efficiency concept will allow Tanganyika Blue to produce sustainably and environmentally friendly, and to increase energy and resource efficiency aspects, that in turn reduce operating costs. The project thus responds to all three REPIC promotion areas: renewable energy, energy efficiency and resource efficiency.