eSwatini's Path to Energy Independence: A Brighter Future with Solar Power

 Now the Kingdom of Eswadini is making moves towards electricity security and a sustainable energy future. Eswadini has added two more solar PV plants to their energy portfolio as their Lavumisa 10 megawatt plant near completion. Joining me for more on this is Peter Benbe, the Eswadini Minister for Natural Resources and Energy. Thank you very much for joining us, Minister. Now before we get into the energy future that you are envisioning for, Eswadini just walk me through the current power mixer that Eswadini is working with. Yes, thank you very much. Eswadini is currently dependent on our neighbors for power. Approximately 80% of our power comes from our neighbors. So what we are doing now, we have made a plan, a long-term generation plan. Out of that came out a short-term generating plant, where we are saying we need to be self-sufficient in terms of power. We are currently driving about 180 megawatt from in-house, which is a mix of hydro and then we have added the solar energy on it. We are looking at adding the solar power as you are aware, we are currently looking at a 40 megawatt solar power in addition to the already established 10 megawatts that we are talking about. And we are also in process of awarding contracts pertaining to the biomass power generation, which will also add another 40 megawatts. Eswadini is working very, very hard to have a good mix in terms of its power supply. And we are trying to also follow on our economic recovery plan, which is ended in increasing industry. Now you will understand that industry requires a lot of power. So this is why we are working so hard to deliver on that front so that industry can improve. In that we can also improve employment. This is a strong point for the Minister of Natural Resources to make sure that it is power-sufficient. Minister, just walk me through those timelines then for that renewable energy strategy. Yes, this was introduced or launched in 2018, which is a short-term generation plant, which is looking at the next three years. This is where I was talking to the issues of increasing our solar power and our biomass energy. And just walk me through the incentives also that you have put in place for the completion of this sustainable energy future that you are talking about. Yes, and the biggest of this is the employment part. We are looking at once these are complete. They will provide employment or even during construction, they will provide employment in the country so that people can improve their livelihoods. We have seen this when we were doing the 10 megawatts plant. We employed over 170 people in a most rural area. And people's lives were improved. And we are going to still employ people during the whole cycle of the generation process.

The Kingdom of eSwatini is making moves towards electricity security and a sustainable energy future. eSwatini has added two more Solar PV plants to their energy portfolio as their Lavumisa 10 Mega Watt plant nears completion. Peter Bhembe, eSwatini Minister for Natural Resources and Energy joins CNBC Africa for more.

eSwatini adds two more Solar PV plants to energy portfolio

The Kingdom of eSwatini is making moves towards electricity security and a sustainable energy future. 

eSwatini adds two more Solar PV plants to energy portfolio

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eSwatini adds two more Solar PV plants to energy portfolio

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