13 June 2013 – Mozambique’s minister of energy, Salvador Namburete, says that 25% of the country’s population now has access to the grid while a further 13% has access to electricity in the form of solar photovoltaic panels. In this way, he claims a national electricity access level of 38% compared with 7% in 2004.

He says that to keep up with demand the country will have to supply an additional 100 MW a year domestically. Mozambique has an estimated 12,000 MW of hydroelectric potential, while it utilises some 2,300 MW of this. The bulk of that stems from the Cahora Bassa scheme, which exports most of its electricity to neighbouring countries.

A number of hydroelectric projects are in various staged of planning, these being the development of the 1,245 MW Cahora Bassa North Bank and the two phase 2,400 MW Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric schemes. Smaller projects planned include the 200 MW Borama scheme, the 600 MW Lupata project and the 120 MW Lurio project.

In addition to Mozambique’s hydroelectric potential, it has large coal resources in Tete province and four different coal groups have plans to establish coal fired power stations.