Page 5 - AfrElec Week 05

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec
Moagi is now confident that a tender will be awarded one of the projects, but did not say which was the winner.
“ e project is at an advanced stage because what we needed to do is to make sure the power purchase agreements are nalised and we hope that this year it will be nalised,” Moagi said.
He said the government expected the CBM project to come on stream by 2022.
e country has an estimated 190bn cubic metres of economically recoverable CBM.
Coal sector
In the wider coal sector, there are only two operating coal-mining sites in the country. e state-owned Morupule coal-to-power complex produces around 1mn tonnes per year (tpy), and also features the Morupule B power plant.
e Chinese-built Morupule B power plant cangenerate450MW,butithasonlybeenoper- ating below capacity, meaning that the country has had to import up to 200 MW from the South African Power Pool to meet its demand of 600 MW.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Minergy began operations at the Masama mine in 2019, and aims to produce 100,000 tonnes per month for export to South Africa by 2022.
Renewables
Botswana’s commitment to coal accompanies e orts by the government to exploit its consid- erable solar potential.
In 2019, Botswana and Namibia launched a procurement programme for up to 5,000 MW of solar capacity that would supply the regional southern African market, principally South Africa.
Unlike coal, renewables is enthusiastically supported by Western development finance institutions (DFIs) such as the US government’s Power Africa, World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Energy policy
Botswana’s energy policy aims to make the coun- try self-su cient, support renewables and foster the exports of coal and CTL-derived synthetic fuels to South Africa.
As well as CBM, the country is investing in solar farms and an extension to the Moropule B power plant in a bid to become self-su cient in electricity.
e government plans to support $1.8bn of investment in the power sector to meet up to 500 MW of forecast new demand by 2030.
CTLandCBMtechnologyarepartofglobal efforts by the coal industry to promote clean coal.
For Botswana, coal is the key to energy secu- rity, a source of export revenues and a new source of energy for crisis-hit South Africa.
e next step for CTL is funding, and Bot- swana seems to be talking to the Chinese, in contrast to the Western support for renewables in southern Africa.
However, it has taken three years to reach this stage, so progress has been slow. With bid- ders now making their intentions public, the Botswana government has had a hard time in drumming up interest.
China certainly has the money to support a $4bn CTL project, and Beijing certainly has enough experience in Africa to leverage its nancial and political in uence in Botswana.™
Week 05 06•February•2020 w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m P5