Mozambique tops African renewable energy use

Namburete

Mozambique has emerged as one of the leading countries in Africa using renewable energy sources courtesy of an electricity expansion programme that made it possible for over two million Mozambicans to access electricity via renewable sources.

Salvador Namburete, the country’s energy minister said recently that “currently, 30 per cent of Mozambicans have access to electricity, 20 per cent from the expansion of the national grid and the remaining 10 per cent – about 2.1 million Mozambicans, through renewable energy sources, including solar panels, wind turbines, small and medium-size dams and biomass, which generate electricity with the same quality as that of the Cabora Bassa dam.”

Mozambique’s renewable energy projects under development also include a number of biofuel facilities utilizing sugarcane bagasse and jatropha seedcake under the government’s recently approved strategy for renewable energy.

The most widely used renewable energy resource is solar power, with small facilities scattered across the nation to meet the needs of rural populations, particularly in remote areas, where traditional electrical resources would be both difficult and expensive to deploy.

Mozambique now also has a number of micro hydropower dams, with a generating capacity up to 15 megawatts of electricity, which are being used to supply power to small communities.

Namburete said “we must recognise that large dams are crucial to produce enough energy to supply mega-projects such as the aluminium smelter ‘Mozal’ and other industries. But the small and micro-power stations are better placed to solve the problems of the population through local systems capable of providing clean and quality e

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Posted by AfricaSTI on August 29, 2011. Filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry