Botswana

Pash Global and Tswana Renewables have formed a joint venture to develop small-scale PV plants across Botswana. For the first two 400 kW projects they have already secured a power purchase agreement.

Botswana has kicked off a tender for seven solar projects. The installations are expected to help the sub-Saharan country to reduce its dependence on electricity imports from South Africa.

The tendered solar PV plants are expected to help the Sub-Saharan country reduce its dependence on electricity imports from South Africa.

Sun Exchange is seeking to deploy 1 GW of solar power projects in Africa the next five years as it further expands its user base. Sun Exchange CEO Abraham Cambridge spoke to pv magazine about how the company will use its newly acquired funds.

With pressure mounting on the world’s governments to turn their back on the fossil fuel, China and peers in South East Asia, Europe and South Asia could help deliver a coal-free future at the COP26 climate summit planned in Glasgow in November.

Two projects with a total generation capacity of 4 MW will be the first of a planned 12 that are set to bring 35 MW of solar to the grid of the Southern African nation by the end of next year.

The Africa Solar Industry Association has recorded almost 2 GW of large scale project announcements since the start of last month with 18 countries planning new clean power infrastructure and including energy storage in the plants.

A Carbon Tracker report estimates 60% of the world’s technical solar potential – enough to produce 3.5 exawatt-hours of clean electricity per year – would already be cheaper than fossil fuel if installed. Of the remainder, most would be in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which has the potential to be a global solar and wind powerhouse.

Diamond Trading Company Botswana is seeking proposals for a 600 kW ground-mounted PV plant to power operations at its mining site in Gaborone.

Trade bodies the Africa Solar Industry Association and the African Hydrogen Partnership hosted a two-day virtual conference to discuss the role green hydrogen can play in economic growth across the continent–and how it could drive desalination in freshwater-starved coastal countries.