Botswana launch tender for six solar PV power plants

Botswana’s national power utility, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), has launched a request for proposals for the development, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of six solar PV power plants in the Southern African country. Interested developers are required to submit bids by the 25th March 2022.

On the tender notice BPC did not indicate how much power generation capacity each plant should have, but it stipulated that tender documents can be acquired at its Gaborone office at a non-refundable tender documentation fee of US$130 (P1 500).

The latest tender comes at a time Botswana is looking to improve local power generation capacity and reduce reliance on imports from neighbouring South Africa, itself currently plagued by power shortages.

Botswana currently has an installed solar PV generation capacity of 6MW, according to latest statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency. The Southern African country has a massive renewable energy potential. New estimates from London-based climate change think tank, Carbon Tracker, say the country has 5,000 times more renewable energy (RE) resources than it needs to power its population.

Estimates from Solargis.com, a global agency on solar data, shows that Botswana has a direct normal (solar) irradiation (DNI) – a measure of the amount of sunlight – of over 3,000 kWh/m2 per annum, some of the highest in the world.

The diamond rich country plans to increase the share of renewables in its energy mix to 18% by 2030. The country is also looking to develop excessive amounts of renewable electricity for export through the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP). A U.S backed 5 GW mega solar project to be jointly developed by Botswana and Namibia is currently on the country’s priority projects list.