Botswana’s experts and decision-makers have expressed optimism that the China-Africa partnership in solar energy technologies will help the southern African nation move away from an excessive reliance on coal for electricity production.
Botswana’s minister of minerals and energy, recently spoke by phone with Xinhua about Botswana’s ambitious transition away from an overreliance on coal for electricity generation and toward raising the share of renewable energy.
Moagi, who late last month attended the International Solar Alliance (ISA)’s fourth Regional Committee Meeting in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, said Botswana’s quest for solar energy development could be realized through China’s potential and involvement.
“Users of solar energy technology in Botswana should be working closely with manufacturers of the technology in China,” said Moagi, adding that he learnt a lot from the ISA meeting, which brought together African energy ministers to discuss ways of bringing long-term solutions to energy shortages in Africa using solar energy resources.
Botswana generates its electricity from coal, and it is doing everything within its power to move toward increasing the share of renewable energy.
Moagi said the country’s power utility, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), recently rolled out two solar projects with different private players—a 3MW in northeastern Botswana and a 1MW in the northwestern village of Shakawe—for them to generate and feed into the national grid.
In a separate interview, Gabaake, an executive director at Tlou Energy Limited, an independent provider of clean energy in Botswana, told Xinhua on Friday in a separate interview that making use of Chinese technology and manpower to develop renewable energy resources would spur Botswana’s transition from carbon emissions.
“We need a private sector that will focus on manufacturing solar pumps and other productive use applications. And the Chinese are the only ones with the expertise,” said Gabaake, adding Botswana can make strides through a linkage between her and China.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi recently revealed that Botswana is preparing to construct a solar power plant that will generate 25 gigawatts of electricity in collaboration with some private players.
To achieve a reduction of national carbon emissions of 15% by 2030, Masisi added late last year that Botswana aims to deliver small-scale digester plants to cut greenhouse emissions by 1.65 million tonnes by next year.
