João Baptista Borges says photovoltaic systems will guarantee “green” electricity for almost 1.5 million people. The Ministry of Energy and Water João Baptista Borges (MINEA) today, July 20, 2022, completed two photovoltaic parks in Benguela, in Biópio and Baía Farta, with an installed capacity of 285 megawatts (MW), which will produce “green” electricity around 1 .5 million people. The Angolan government’s goal, set out in the Angola Energy 2025 plan, is for the country to have almost 60% of the rural population with access to electricity in three years. The two projects are integrated into the National Development Plan 2018-2022 in terms of the goals of diversifying energy production sources. With a total installed capacity of 189 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply more than one million residents, the photovoltaic plant in the municipality of Biópio, municipality of Catumbela, is the largest solar energy project in Angola and integrates almost 509,000 solar panels. The second plant, Baía Farta, of 96 MW will feed energy into the national grid to benefit half a million consumers and consists of around 261,000 solar panels. The two parks are part of seven parks with a total capacity of 370 MWp, spread over the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bié, Lunda-Norte (in Lucapa), Lunda-Sul (in Saurimo) and Moxico (in Luena). ), which should be operational by the end of the year. The seven solar parks were jointly developed by an international consortium of MCA and Sun Africa, with the engineering and construction component carried out by MCA.They will provide around 2.4 million people with renewable and clean electricity and help reduce pollutant emissions of around one million tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) per year. The solar parks will also eliminate the need to consume about 1.4 million liters of diesel in generators and thermal production, which are very polluting and allow very important savings on imports, João Baptista Borges concluded.
