Gov’t doubles Mmadinare solar contract to 120MW3 Jan 2024 20:51
Ministry and BPC previously doubled coal-fired plant from 300MW to 600MW PPA. Now below they just doubled solar PPA from 60MW to 120MW. Yet CBM are fannying around with 2, 6 or 10 measly megawatts - another sign the locals are not convinced on CBM feedstock.
A catec ASA, the Norwegian firm that scooped a contract to build the country’s largest renewable energy plant to date, says government has doubled the deal to 120MW, with capital costs estimated at $104 million (P1.4bn).
The original 60MW plant, to be built between Selebi-Phikwe and Mmadinare by June 2024, was the largest renewable procurement signed off by government. Government and Scatec officials signed a binding 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in August 2022 in Gaborone.
Under the deal, Scatec will finance, develop, and operate the solar power station, with the Botswana Power Corporation purchasing the generation.
This week, Scatec officials revealed that government had requested additional generation capacity.
“In the third quarter 2023, Scatec was awarded a 60MW expansion to the project, taking the total capacity to 120MW,” officials stated in an update.
The increase in requested generation awarded to Scatec mirrors the arrangement government sealed in July with Indian mega-firm, Jindal, for the doubling of a coal-fired power project to 600MW. At the time, Minerals and Energy minister, Lefoko Moagi, told this publication that government had been revising its Integrated Resource Plan and had noted an opportunity to go for the 600MW rather than the 300MW, given Jindal’s proven capacity in such projects.
He said since the procurement had already been done for the 300MW, the ministry had gone to Cabinet to seek an additional 300MW so that “it ties into the procurement that’s already there, going straight to Jindal rather than another procurement process”. With global funding of coal drying up, Moagi said government saw an opportunity to tap into the available funding and build a larger project.
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