As the door prepares to close on Botswana’s Biogas project, government have hailed the undertaking a success.
The first-of-its-kind project, which commenced in 2017 and comes to a conclusion in January 2022, sought to facilitate low carbon investments in the production and utilization of biogas from agro–waste.
Notable achievements include: development of biogas and fuel standards, upgrade of renewable energy feed in tariffs as well as the development of the Integrated Waste Management Bill.
The project has also aided training of 70 small scale digester masons and capacitation of 16 trainers on biogas construction in six vocational training centers. In addition, 200 small-scale digesters were constructed, resulting in a future development of a feasibility study report for medium scale digester for Botswana Meat Commission (BMC).
Speaking on the sidelines of Botswana Biogas Conference 2021, Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Lefoko Moagi highlighted government’s vision for a nation which is energy secured.
“The energy sector will be transformed through the exploitation of renewable energy resources. Appropriate technologies that enhance efficiency and minimize the emission of greenhouse gases will be used. A conducive environment backed by policy and legislation will be created to allow for and facilitate private-public partnerships and investment in clean technology and renewable energy sources,” declared Moagi.
The Minister further noted that to rubberstamp their intentions to transition to renewable energy sources, parliament recently passed the National Energy Policy, Renewable Energy Strategy as well as an Integrated Electricity Generation Plan.
According to Moagi, by 2030, Botswana aims to have reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent from the 2010 baseline.
Further, for the reduction of these emissions, the government has set a target of 15 percent of peak electricity demand from renewable energy by 2030.
With Botswana struggling to meet the demand of electricity in recent years, resorting to importing from South Africa’s ESKOM, Biogas energy is seen as a solution to energy and environmental challenges.
Notable achievements include: development of biogas and fuel standards, upgrade of renewable energy feed in tariffs as well as the development of the Integrated Waste Management Bill.
It amazes when development specialist have a short memory of issues at hand. The above article sells the above intervention as the first of its kind in Botswana. Forgetting that the now disfunct “Rural Industries Innovation Centre (RIIC)/Rural Industries Company (RIPco) did put in place promotional biogas plants in the 1980s in places as far as Kang (Kgalagadi District), Mogojogojwe (Southern District, Serowe (Central District), to mention but a few. Experiences from these plants where well document.