Solar power is the fastest growing in Mozambique

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Solar power is the fastest growing in Mozambique

3:34 CAT | 03 Oct 2022

File photo: Lusa

Fastest growing electricity source in 2017-21 still represents less than 1% of total production

Solar power was the fastest growing source of electricity in Mozambique between 2017 and 2021, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Friday.

Annual production grew from 1.5 to 69 gigawatts over the four years, according to the Energy, Gas and Oil Basic Indicators bulletin.

Even so, the energy obtained via solar panels represents less than 1% of the electricity produced in the country. The Cahora Bassa dam is responsible for 83% of the country’s electricity supply.

The Metoro solar plant, the largest in the country, was inaugurated in April of this year. It has 125,000 solar panels of Chinese manufacture, a capacity of 41 megawatts, and is capable of supplying up to 69 gigawatts/hour per year into the Electricity of Mozambique (EDM) grid.

Another solar power plant, with a capacity of 30 megawatts, is to be built near the city of Beira in Dondo district, Sofala province.

According to the INE (citing data from EDM), the overall rate of access to electricity has been rising every year and, by 2021, electricity was reaching 38.6% of the Mozambican population.

In the same year, the public company EDM billed 3.5 million megawatt-hours across the country, almost half of it in the province and city of Maputo.

The Mozambican government has set a goal of achieving universal access to electricity by 2030.

Source: Lusa