Mozambique could reach over 500 MW of electricity from renewable sources

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Mozambique could reach over 500 MW of electricity from renewable sources
Mozambique could reach over 500 MW of electricity from renewable sources

Africa-Press – Mozambique. The private sector in Mozambique could reach an installed capacity of 575 Megawatts (MW) of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030. The Head of the Infrastructure and Private Sector Team at the Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Mozambique, Veerle Smet, made this forecast on Monday at a Maputo press conference.

The power to be achieved by 2030 excludes electricity from HCB, the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam in the western Mozambican province of Tete, and from the projected Mphanda Nkuwa dam, to be built on the Zambezi River, about 60 kilometres downstream from Cahora Bassa.

The country’s power sector currently has a capacity to generate 2,750 MW, and the national electrification rate is close to 50 percent. It is expected to reach about 6,500 MW by 2030.

At the event, aimed at announcing the preparations of a business conference on renewable energies in Mozambique, Smet explained that the EU has provided support to the government programme “Energy for All”, particularly in the production of electricity from renewable sources.

According to Smet, the EU has already disbursed about 200 million Euros to assist projects in the renewable energy sector in Mozambique. “What we are going to launch at the conference is a financial instrument particularly for the private sector that is called ‘Electrificar’, and there we are going to open a window for the country,” she said.

To be launched during the business conference, the EU private sector financing package is budgeted at 15 million Euros (about 15.6 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate).

“Specifically, it is to attract more private sector companies that will invest in the country”, she added.

For his part, the president of the Mozambican Renewable Energy Association (AMER), Ricardo Pereira, said that the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, has already made a commitment to acquire at least 400 MW through renewable energy sources by the end of 2030.

Pereira mentioned projects that are funding the private sector with interest in the development of renewable energy, and that should be directly connected to EDM’s electricity grid.

“The EDF ElectriFi Programme, from the European Union, and the Get Invest Mozambique Programme, from the German Embassy, are programmes that finance projects directly connected to the grid and that will contribute to this access”, he said.

According to Pereira, Mozambique has a huge potential for power generation, including solar, wind, hydro and biomass power, much of which remains untapped.

The business conference on renewable energies in Mozambique, which will take place next week in Maputo, will be organized by the Lusophone Renewable Energy Associations (ALER), the Mozambican Association of Renewable Energy (AMER) and the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE).

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