Mozambique: Solar power output to almost quadruple in 2024 – budget documents

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Mozambique: Solar power output to almost quadruple in 2024 – budget documents

7:41 CAT | 08 Nov 2023

File photo: Lusa

Solar power output in Mozambique is set to almost quadruple in 2024, based on the expansion of more than a dozen solar parks, while still accounting for a relatively small part of the total, according to documents accompanying the 2024 budget bill.

According to the document being debated in parliament, to which Lusa had access today, the installed capacity of solar parks in 2023 was estimated by the Mozambican government at 71,777 megaWatt-hours (MWh), which next year is expected to grow to 278,519 MWh, an increase of 288% in the space of one year.

The Mocuba solar plant alone, in Zambézia province, centre of the country, will increase its production by 5% to 73,067 MWh next year, according to the government forecast.

Mozambique expects to produce, in all, a total of 18,496,557 MWh in 2024. This would represent a reduction of 1% compared to 2023, mainly hydro (14,995,899 MWh, -2%), primarily from the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric Plant (HCB), with 14,506,036 MWh (-3%), yet with a weight of 82% of the entire national production structure.

“Comparing the estimated production and sales for 2023, HCB predicts a reduction in energy production and sales for 2024 due to repair work on the floodgate diffuser (preparatory activities for the Central Rehabilitation Project – RS2) which will make the group’s generators 4 and 5 unavailable,” the document reads.

Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), a state-owned producer and distributor, forecasts 7% growth in output in 2024, compared to projections for 2023, influenced by the substantial increase in production from the Mavuzi and Chicamba hydro plants.

Source: Lusa