The Jwaneng Solar Power Station is a solar power station, under development in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. Two Chinese companies and one Botswana

independent power producer An independent power producer (IPP) or non-utility generator (NUG) is an entity that is not a public utility but owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users. NUGs may be privately held facilities, corporations ...

(IPP) formed a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

that owns the project.

Botswana Power Corporation Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is a state-owned company for electrical power generation, transmission and distribution in Botswana. It was established in 1970 and is currently the only electricity supplier in the country. BPC represents Botswan ...

(BPC), the national electricity utility company is the power off-taker, under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Location

The power station would be located in the town of

Jwaneng Jwaneng is a town located in the Southern District of Botswana, but it is not part of this, being a separate district, with its own Town Council. History The town was formed around the Jwaneng diamond mine, considered the richest in the world ...

, in the Southern District of Botswana. Jwaneng is located approximately west of

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Botswana, largest city of Botswana, with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its metropolitan area is home to 534, ...

, the capital city of Botswana.

Developers

The power station is under development by a

comprising two Chinese companies and one Botswana IPP. The shareholders in the business formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) company to own, design, build, operate and maintain this energy infrastructure. The SPV company is called Sinotswana Green Energy. The table below illustrates the shareholding in the SPV company.

Costs

The cost of construction is reported as US$78.3 million (ZAR 1.4 billion). The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company and ''China Water and Electric Development Company''. The same pair was awarded the operations and maintenance contract.

Construction timetable

Construction is expected to start during H2 2024, with commercial commissioning anticipated during H2 2025.

Other considerations

At a later stage it is expected that a 50 MW

battery storage power station A battery energy storage system (BESS), battery storage power station, battery energy grid storage (BEGS) or battery grid storage is a type of energy storage technology that uses a group of batteries in the grid to store electrical energy. Batte ...

(BESS) will be installed at this power station to enable the station to supply power before the sun rises and after it sets. Botswana, which depends on 96 percent fossil-fuel sources for its electricity as of 2024, intends to increase its sources of

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

generation to 50 percent of demand by 2036. This power station assists in attaining that goal.

References

External links

Botswana Signs Agreement for First 100 MW Solar Power Station
As of 15 August 2024. {{Authority control Solar power stations in Botswana Central District (Botswana) 2020s establishments in Botswana