A tender has been issued for the construction of two 200MW thermodynamic solar power plants in Botswana by the government of the Southern Africa country through the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology, and Energy Security.
The power plants are set to be built by independent power producers (IPPs) at Maun, a town in the North West District near the entrance to the Okavango Delta, and Letlhakane, in the Central District.
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Interested parties have until April 11th, 2022 to submit for the pre-qualification procedure, that will will be followed by a second round in which succeful candidates will be selected. The chosen parties will be charge of planning, funding, building, owning, and running these solar thermodynamic power plants.
Expectationns for the proposed thermodynamic solar power plants in Botswana
The two 200MW thermodynamic solar power plants in Botswana are set to supply electricty to the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), a state-owned company for electrical power generation, transmission and distribution in Botswana, for further distribution to the end consumers. These will make the country the first in Sub-Saharan Africa, aside from South Africa, to link solar thermal generating systems to the national grid.
With these projects, the government of the Southern African country hopes to meet the country’s estimated electricity need of 550 MW. Additionaly, the solar power plants are expected to assist to diversify the country’s energy mix, which is now dominated by coal (80%).
Botswana receives 3,200 hours of sunlight per year and has an irradiance of 6,640 Wh/m2/day in terms of solar energy.
