Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini (Swaziland) and South Africa to the southwest. The country has a total land area of 799,380 km2 and a population of 27.2 million in 2018. The capital is located in Maputo and Portuguese is the official language.
Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources. The country's economy is based largely on agriculture, but industry is growing, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, aluminum and petroleum production. The tourism sector is also expanding. South Africa is Mozambique's main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment, while Belgium, Brazil, Portugal and Spain are also among the country's most important economic partners. Since 2001, Mozambique's annual average GDP growth has been among the world's highest. However, the country is still one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world, ranking low in GDP per capita, human development, measures of inequality and average life expectancy.
About 70% of its population of 28 million live and work in rural areas. The country is endowed with ample arable land, water, energy, as well as mineral resources and newly discovered natural gas offshore. It is also strategically located; four of the six countries it borders are landlocked, and hence dependent on Mozambique as a conduit to global markets. Mozambique’s strong ties to the region’s economic engine, South Africa, underscore the importance of its economic, political, and social development to the stability and growth of Southern Africa as a whole.
At 187 gigawatts, Mozambique has the largest power generation potential in Southern Africa from untapped coal, hydro, gas, wind and solar resources. Hydropower currently accounts for about 81% of installed capacity. However, natural gas and renewable energy sources occupy a growing share of Mozambique’s energy mix. Despite the outsized potential, only 29% of the population has access to electricity, due to the limited transmission and distribution networks and unfavorable market conditions for new generation. The industrial and commercial segments are expected to drive demand growth, as residential consumers struggle with the existing highly subsidized tariffs.
Mozambique has significant and virtually unexploited solar potential. Global horizontal irradiation varies between 1,785 and 2,206 kWh/m2/year. In total, Mozambique has a potential of more than 2.7 GW that could be easily developed. This potential offers many possibilities for grid-connected and rural electrification projects. The provinces of Maputo and Tete have the highest potential for grid-connected solar projects, essentially due to the favorable grid infrastructure. There is approximately 1.3 MW of solar PV-based mini-grids installed in Niassa funded by the Government of South Korea, approximately 200 kW (50x 4 kW each) of solar PV-based mini-grids funded through the Portuguese Carbon Fund, and a handful of multi- and bi-lateral programmes (e.g. World Bank, Belgian Development Agency (BTC), UNIDO, Energizing Development) focused on the installation of SHS on rural institutions, micro-enterprises, and households. Current installed capacity in the country is estimated to be 2.2 MW.
Since the rural population is highly dispersed, the majority of these projects are off-grid, stand-alone systems and decentralized mini-grids. When selecting locations for PV systems, priority is given to government institutions including schools, hospitals, and government administrative functions. In the absence of an incentive system, active commercial markets have not yet developed and there is relatively little private participation. A factor may also be that consumers may prefer to wait for arrival of FUNAE funded projects compared to private projects, given their cost disadvantage. The Government’s renewable strategy also includes targets for the installation of 100,000 solar water heaters and 5,000 solar refrigerators up to 2025.
Through a series of U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) grants Power Africa is supporting feasibility studies in Mozambique. One grant is for a 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at the Nacala International Airport. The grantee is WHN Solar, S.A. and the solar plant, to be developed in increments of 20-40 MW, includes an associated energy storage facility. The project will add generation capacity and help stabilize the grid, in Northern Mozambique. Mozambique’s first utility-scale solar power plant, a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 40MW, was commissioned in Zambézia Province in 2017. There are numerous other greenfield opportunities for both solar and wind projects.