29 Mar 2022

The 3MW solar power plant soon to be built in Bobonong will be the first ever independent electricity producer in the country.

Expected to be commissioned in July, it will also mark the liberalisation and introduction of competition into the electricity supply industry, Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi has said.

He was speaking during the ground breaking ceremony for the plant, a joint Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and South Africa’s Sturdee Energy Consortium project.

The South African company is an independent power producer that owns and operates renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

A power purchase agreement between the two entities was signed in July 2021 with construction of the plant starting four months later.

Minister Moagi said the plant had capacity to generate up to 8 640MHW of power per annum which would improve energy security and supplement local electricity generation. 

The plant, he said, was ‘intentionally situated in Bobonong to produce power close to the demand centre of the Bobirwa region and neighbouring areas’. 

Minister Moagi explained that the project was part of the Integrated Resource Plan ‘that outlines the least cost development plan for electricity supply installations and their associated technologies for a period of 20 years.’ 

“It is part of the suite of 12 solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 135MW, 50 per cent of which have already been procured and the remainder are undergoing procurement,” he explained.

According to the minister, commercial operation of the projects would commerce this year with the stated 135MW capacity  expected to be on the grid by mid-2024. 

Sturdee Energy director, Mr James White said the Bobonong, plant, together with the one in Shakawe, the first private renewable energy projects in Botswana, would supply BPC for 25 years. 

On average, the project would produce enough clean renewable power to supply approximately 4 500 households per year. 

Mr White explained that the  power would be supplied through a 7.5km, 66kV overhead line from the project site through to the BPC substation outside Bobonong. 

It will employ state-of-the-art technology consisting of 7 038 “bifacial” solar panels which use both the front and back of the panel to harvest the sun’s energy and to capture the reflection of the sun off the ground respectively. 

For his part, BPC chief executive officer, Mr David Kgoboko said solar powered plants were in line with the Paris Agreement and COP26 requirements of transitioning away from the current hydro-carbon dominated energy mix to a sustainable one. 

He said BPC had signed five power purchase agreements for solar PV projects; the first two being Bobonong and Shakawe while the other three were for Lobatse, Maun and Ghanzi. 

The company is reportedly in the process of concluding negotiations for a 4MW station in Molepolole and a 50MW plant for Selebi Phikwe, to be signed next month.  

“We are also in the process of procuring investors for another 50MW solar plant to be built in Jwaneng and six small grid tied plants in Kasane, Tutume, Serowe, Kang, Tsabong and Charleshill,” revealed Mr Kgoboko. 

In addition, he explained that last year BPC introduced a rooftop solar programme allowing commercial, industrial and domestic customers to install solar panels on their properties to generate electricity for  own consumption and sell surplus to the parastatal. Ends