Botswana To Pivot From Coal To Solar

The largely desert nation, which relies on coal and power imports for its electricity, has set a target of 2030 to take advantage of its abundant sunlight by getting 50 of its power needs from renewable facilities. Jindal Steel Power is separately building coal-fired facilities to supply 600MW of power in the country.

"We are already putting out a request for proposals" for the solar power, Bogolo Kenewendo, the minister, said in an interview this week. "There's a lot of opportunity for energy production and exporting into Southern Africa."

The request represents a step-change in Botswana's drive to expand renewable power generation, with just 5.2MW of capacity currently in operation and the government having awarded generation contracts of 246MW. Its energy plan calls for 8GW of solar power by 2030.

That ambition comes amid a regional shortage of power, with Zimbabwe and Zambia suffering crippling shortages of electricity after a drought drained dams used for hydropower, and South Africa periodically hit by outages as its ageing coal-fired plants break down.