Mozambique opens first solar power station

August 13, 2019: Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi has officially inaugurated Mozambique's first solar power station at Mocuba, situated in the Zambezia province. The station would add 40 megawatts of electricity into the national grid.

The new power station cost $76 million and is part of the national "Energy for All" programme.

Nyusi remarked that the Mocuba power station will produce about 79-gigawatt hours of electricity a year, and will supply clean energy to 175,000 clients. It will also prevent the emission into the atmosphere of about 75,000 tonnes of carbon a year.

It was built under a partnership between the Norwegian independent electricity producer, Scatec Solar (52.5 percent); the Norwegian Development Financial Institution, KLP Norfund Investments (22.5 percent); and the Mozambican publicly-owned electricity company, EDM (25 percent).

He further added that the strategic goals of the government are based on the continued expansion of access to electricity at the lowest possible cost, including the use of new and renewable sources of power, stimulating the development of technologies for systems of solar, wind and hydro power.

Meanwhile, the construction of a solar power station at Metoro, in Ancuabe district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, will start later this year. An agreement to build the plant was signed in December 2018 with the French company Neon, which is one of the largest independent power producers in France.