File photo shows solar panels at Botswana's first Photovoltaic solar power plant. (Xinhua/Sharon Tshipa)
Botswana aims for 15 percent of electricity supply to be from the renewable energy sector by 2030, an official has said.
GABORONE, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Botswana is racing against time for increased utilization and application of renewable energy technologies in order to attain its set target by 2030, an official said Wednesday.
Baruti Regoeng, a principal engineer at the department of energy within Botswana's Ministry of Minerals and Energy, said Botswana is looking forward to having 15 percent of the country's electricity supply come from renewable energy by 2030.
"Currently, the contribution of renewable energy is very low for Botswana," said Regoeng when presenting Botswana's energy security outlook during a mining and construction seminar held in Gaborone, Botswana's capital city.
Regoeng said renewable energy's contribution toward Botswana's electricity supply is estimated to be less than 2.4 percent, according to a survey released in April last year, while Botswana envisages being energy secure with diversified safe and clean energy sources.
Botswana, with an estimated 212,868 million tons of coal and other new resources such as coal bed methane, relies heavily on a carbon-intensive model to generate grid electricity for both the industrial and household sectors.
Regoeng said abundant coal resources would not be sustainable in the long term unless green technologies are utilized to address, amongst others, issues of climate change.
Botswana's current electricity demand is estimated at between 580MW and 620MW based on peak demand which occurs in the morning and evening. ■
