Mocuba solar power station

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Saturday inaugurated a solar power station at Mocuba in the central province of Zambezia, with the capacity to generate 40 megawatts of electricity. The new power station cost 76 million US dollars, and is part of the national “Energy for All” programme. It was built under a partnership between the Norwegian independent electricity producer, Scatec Solar, the Norwegian Development Financial Institution, Norfund, and the Mozambican publicly owned electricity company, EDM. Scatec Solar is the main shareholder in the Mocuba power station, with 52.5 per cent of the shares. EDM has 25 per cent, and KLP Norfund Investments holds the remaining 22.5 per cent. The power produced at Mocuba will be fed into the Mozambican national grid. After 25 years, management of the station will pass into the hands of EDM.

Nyusi told the inauguration ceremony 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.

“We witnessed today the coming onto stream of the first large scale solar power station built in the country”, declared the President. He urged local residents to take care of the station and to be vigilant against any acts of vandalism.

The Mocuba station was built in record time, the President said, as a priority facility in response to the government’s strategic electricity plan. It was “a signal of the commitment of the government and its partners to reduce the imbalance in the development of this province”, he added. The strategic goals of the government, he continued, are based on 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.

“Our option for this natural resource for generating electricity will certainly drive the projects that are being born in Zambezia province in particular, and in the entire central and northern region”, he said. The representative of the Norwegian Embassy at the ceremony, Tom Eriksen, declared that Norway “wants to continue investing in this country in various fields, particularly the energy sector”.