31 Oct 2016

Energy is vital to economic growth and development, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Dr Obolokilwe Obakeng has said.

Speaking at the International Renewable Energy Conference (IREC) on behalf of the minister, Dr Obakeng said the increase in the share of domestic electricity generation had shown rapid rise from 12 per cent in 2010 to approximately 70 per cent in 2015.

That, he said, was a result of deliberate government policy shift from least cost energy supply to self-sufficiency, which led to significant investment in domestic power generation infrastructure.

“Currently, installed electric generation capacity in the country is 892MW.  Of this, 732 is coal fired generation, derived from Botswana’s considerable coal resources.

The remainder is derived from emergency diesel power plants. Solar contributes less than 1 percent to the total national energy supply,” Dr Obakeng said.

Furthermore Dr Obakeng said Botswana had one of the highest levels of solar irradiation in the world, with about 3200 hours of sunshine annually, which when fully harnessed, could address challenges of energy security.

Nonetheless, he said solar was highly capital intensive, especially at large scale.

Meanwhile, he noted that government had remained resolute in promoting renewable energy resources development in the country.

Again, he said government had in the past engaged in a number of activities aimed at increasing penetration of renewables in the national energy supply chain.

However, he said challenges that limited the country’s benefit from the available renewable energy resources, included shortfalls in the supporting legal, institutional, regulatory and financial frameworks. ENDS