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Sturdee Energy’s Bobonong and Shakawe solar PV plants have started commercial operations. The plants are among Botswana’s first renewable energy projects

After commissioning the Motheo copper mine, ASX-listed Sandfire Resources is pushing ahead with plans to expand production, which will include adding solar power and battery energy storage capacity.

State-owned enterprises Botswana Railways and South Africa’s Transnet Freight Rail are seeking $230m to develop a 113km rail line between Mmamabula in Botswana and Lephalale in South Africa to transport coal and other commodities.

ASX-listed miners Lotus Resources and A-Cap Energy plan to create a southern Africa-focused uranium player, with a portfolio including the mothballed Kayelekera mine in Malawi and the undeveloped Letlhakane deposit in Botswana

State utility Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and Indian-owned Jindal Energy Botswana have signed a 30-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to develop a 300MW baseload coal-fired thermal power station at Mmamabula.

Numerous high-level American delegations have visited Africa this year, as Washington seeks to counter Chinese influence around the continent and emphasise its interest in striking mutually beneficial trade and investment deals, but African governments are pushing for better terms of trade and an extension of the soon-to-lapse Agoa trade deal, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi recently in Gaborone.

Botswana has agreed a revised deal with diamond miner De Beers, giving the state a larger role in trading the gemstones and providing a model that others could follow as they seek greater control over their mineral resources. But with longer-term revenues under pressure from changing consumer habits and synthetic diamonds, the authorities are pushing to develop a more diverse minerals industry, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi in Gaborone.

While Botswana has talked about shifting into renewable energy it remains wedded to huge coal resources. But international backing to develop an export-focused 300-500MW ‘Mega Solar’ initiative may help to reduce King Coal’s domination – if not, for now, in the domestic market. The first phase of the Africa Energy Transition Catalyst Programme (AETC) Mega Solar initiative is expected to install 300-500MW across Namibia and Botswana, with further capacity to be added after regional transmission lines are in place, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi in Gaborone.

Establishing a reliable financial framework for building cross-border power interconnections may be the single most effective way to improve electrification across sub-Saharan Africa. Yet bureaucratic impediments are holding up progress at an important scheme, the Southern Africa Power Pool (Sapp)’s Regional Transmission Infrastructure Financing Facility (RTIFF), which could implement its first projects in two to three years – with the right support.

Botswana Stock Exchange-listed Shumba Energy has secured debt and equity funding for its flagship 100MW Tati solar PV project near Francistown. Shumba is also moving forward with several coal mining and power projects in Botswana.

Tlou Energy said on 15 March it had started the next stage of its Lesedi gas-to-power (GTP) project in Botswana, with drilling commencing on a core-hole ahead of the spudding of an additional gas production well.

The Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) on 15 March commissioned a 1MW solar PV plant, which will provide power to its Gaborone premises. The plant is part of an ‘agrovoltaic’ project which combines electricity generation and food production.

Analysis of the latest information on the African Energy Live Data platform shows that over half of the 23.4GW electricity generation capacity expected online by 2027 across southern Africa will come from public procurement rounds, some 12.5GW of it from renewables and hybrid technologies.

Coal remains king in a number of African markets – led by Morocco and South Africa, which usually prefer to tout their credentials as champions of renewable energy. Coal generation is set to peak in 2024, as Live Data shows some 2.7GW of new capacity being added in parallel to planned decommissioning. Given its role in providing baseload, coal is not going away in economies that have come to depend on the combustible, controversial fuel.

London Stock Exchange-listed Kavango Resources on 12 October announced “encouraging” results from its PL082/2018 licence in the Kalahari Copper Belt. The Botswana-focused metals explorer used controlled-source audio magnetotelluric surveys, hitherto unused in the Kalahari, to provide detailed data to a 4km depth