Africa-Press – Mozambique. A report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has found that almost two thirds of renewable power generation brought online around the world last year, accounting for 162 gigawatts of power, had lower costs than the cheapest fossil fuel options.
The cost of renewable energy technology has continued to drop, with concentrating solar power (CSP) – where mirrors or lenses are used to concentrate sunlight – falling by sixteen per cent over the previous year. The cost of onshore wind power fell by thirteen per cent, with offshore wind dropping by nine per cent. The cost of photovoltaic solar power generation fell by seven per cent.
With the start-up costs of renewables dropping and lower running costs, switching to renewables is becoming ever more attractive. According to IRENA, “with costs at low levels, renewables increasingly undercut coal’s existing operational costs too”. The report adds that low-cost renewables “give developed and developing countries a strong business case to power past coal in pursuit of a net zero carbon economy”. In addition, it estimates that the renewable projects that came online in 2020 will save emerging economies up to 156 billion US dollars over their lifespan.
This point was stressed by the Director-General of IRENA, Francesco La Camera, who noted that “renewables present countries tied to coal with an economically attractive phase-out agenda that ensures they meet growing energy demand, while saving costs, adding jobs, boosting growth and meeting climate ambition”.
Over the last decade, the cost of generating electricity from utility-scale solar PV fell by 85 per cent, that of CSP by 68 per cent, onshore wind by 56 per cent and 48 per cent for offshore wind.
As a result, IRENA estimates that retiring the coal powered electricity plants that cannot compete with renewables and replacing them would generate 800 gigawatts of clean power and save over 32 billion US dollars in generating costs annually. This would stop about three gigatons of carbon dioxide per year being released into the atmosphere – which IRENA calculates represents a fifth of the emissions reduction needed by 2030 to keep global warming from going beyond the 1.5 degrees centigrade target set by the Paris Agreement of 2015.
Currently, about three quarters of Mozambique’s electricity is generated by hydroelectric power stations, with about one per cent coming from solar power. And the country has a huge potential for further renewable energy generation – according to the government’s Renewable Energies Auction Programme (Proler), the country’s solar potential is 23,000 gigawatts, wind potential 4.5 gigawatts, hydroelectricity 19 gigawatts, and two gigawatts of bioenergy potential.
Several new solar plants are either under construction or at the planning stage. A solar power plant is currently being built at Cuamba in the northern province of Niassa which will have the capacity to produce 19 megawatts. When it is completed next year, it will be the country’s second large scale solar power plant, joining the 40 megawatt plant in Mocuba in the central province of Zambezia. A third plant providing 41 megawatts is being constructed at Ancuabe in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
In addition, last September the government put out to tender to independent operators the rights to build 40 megawatt solar power plants in Dondo (Sofala province), Lichinga (Niassa), and Manje (Tete), along with a 40 megawatt wind power plant in Inhambane.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is based in Abu Dhabi and is an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to renewable energy.
