Botswana is racing against time for increased utilisation and application of renewable energy technologies 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, made this known.
He said Botswana was looking forward to having 15 per cent of the country’s electricity supply come from renewable energy by 2030.
“Currently, the contribution of renewable energy is very low for Botswana,’’ Regoeng said.
He said this 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 to Botswana’s electricity supply was estimated to be less than 2.4 per cent.
This was according to a survey released in April 2021, while Botswana envisages being energy secured 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 were utilised to address, amongst others, issues of climate change.
Botswana’s current electricity demand was estimated at between 580MW and 620MW based on peak demand which occurred in the morning and evening. (Xinhua/NAN)
