SA looks to Botswana’s solar in electric car manufacturing

Botswana‘ s solar energy supply to the SADC region will enhance the manufacturing sector as African nations have identified manufacturing sector as the major driver to Africa’s economic independence.

South African economist, Tseliso Mohlomi says for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement ( AfCFTA) vision to be successful, nations should adopt strong collaborative measures to facilitate ease of trade and assist each other on various sectors. He revealed that South Africa has already started implementing the AfCFTA and they are working on manufacturing electric cars.

“We are going to need a lot of electricity when we set up more manufacturing plants so we are looking up to Botswana to assist in this area because it has a lot of solar energy but our own thermal energy is not sufficient. Botswana should export energy as significant business opportunities of producing of solar energy,” he said, adding that Botswana is the best partner to supply electricity as the country has the best opportunity of solar energy production due to its positioning in the world. The country enjoys 3,200 hours of sunshine per year.

He further said for the AfCFTA to work, they would need connectivity. “We are not just looking into numbers but we are looking into connectivity and collaborations with other African countries.”

Botswana is currently supplementing its energy demand with imports from South Africa and Namibia as its national power generation cannot meet demand. The country’s installed electricity capacity is 220,000 kW and domestic production totaled 901 million kW hours. An additional 228 million kWh is imported mainly from

South Africa. Consumption per capita is estimated at 874 kWh. Almost all of Botswana’s power comes from the coal- powered Morupule Power Station.

To improve its energy supply Botswana Power Corporation ( BPC) is planning to build four 150 MW coal- fired power plants alongside the existing four 33 MW coal- fired power plants at its Morupule Power Station. The country is also in the process of rebalancing the power mix by involving the private sector in building additional capacity in renewable energy sources.

Recently the country floated a tender seeking companies which can develop a 200MW capacity Solar Power project. The energy produced will be sold to BPC and the project must be operational by 2026.

Currently just six percent of the country’s 600 megawatts of peak electricity demand is supplied by renewable sources. The government has pledged to raise this to 36 percent by 2036.