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Botswana Power Corporation has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Sinotswana Green Energy, a consortium of Chinese and Botswana companies, to officially launch the southern African country’s first 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power station project.
The deal was structured into an engineering, procurement, and construction contract, with operation and maintenance of the Jwaneng 100 MW solar PV power station for 25 years, within the country’s Integrated Resource Plan expected to spur its renewable energy use to 50 percent by 2036. Sinotswana Green Energy was jointly established by China Habor Engineering Company, China International Water & Electric Corporation, and New Energy Company Proprietary Limited, a local company, with China Habor Engineering Company controlling the stake.
Zhitong Finance put the value of the contract at USD 78.3 million. Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi attended the contract signing on Monday(12th August) in Jwaneng, a diamond mining town 200 kilometers (124 kilometers) west of the capital, Gaborone. President stated that the signing is a key milestone in the energy transition and also a political promise they made to Batswana in 2019. The initiative is in line with Botswana’s energy policy goal of providing an affordable, reliable, and adequate supply of energy for sustainable development, as well as improving access to and efficient use of energy resources,” Masisi said, emphasizing that the energy transition is imperative for the mitigation of climate change, decarbonization of the country’s mining industry and to support national ambitions to export energy.
China is willing to share its green energy development experience with Botswana and encourage more Chinese companies to invest in new energy industries, said Lan Yuqiang, commercial counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Botswana. The project is expected to start power generation at the end of 2025.
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Botswana, a semi-arid country dominated by the Kalahari Desert, receives some of the world’s highest levels of sunshine throughout the year, but coal dominates electricity production, with renewable energy currently accounting for just 2% of generation.
Under the government’s revised Integrated Resource Programme that details the generation to be bought or installed until 2040, Botswana intends to ramp up its renewable-energy generation to 50% of demand by 2036.
