In a country where domestic gas, coal and firewood – in addition to road fuels – are the main sources of energy used in daily life by the population, talking about renewable energy may seem somewhat out of place. This is due to the fact that only one in three Mozambicans currently has access to electricity, according to official data.
President Filipe Nyusi announced, a few weeks ago, the goal of extending access to electricity to the entire population in the next 10 years. This promise was made at the inauguration of the high voltage line Chimuara (Mopeia)-High Molocue, which, with a length of 367 kilometers, is budgeted at 200 million dollars, and is expected to be completed next year. Investments in large infrastructures are necessary and urgent in a country that needs them so much.
And access to energy is a basic need enshrined by the United Nations in its Sustainable Development Goals, as it is an essential element in the fight against poverty and in human development. But technological development can help us make a leap forward, as happened with mobile communications, which made it possible to connect the whole country, even the most distant communities, without the need to lift lines.
Similarly, today, renewable energy, especially electricity produced from solar panels, allows the “miracle” of producing electricity locally, even in the most remote villages in the interior. This is not science fiction, but a reality already implemented in several villages in our country – some of them integrated in the Energiza project, promoted by the Galp Foundation in partnership with FUNAE, in four villages in the provinces of Sofala, Manica and Cabo Delgado, benefiting a total of 6 thousand Mozambicans whose lives are being changed for the better in essential aspects of daily life, such as health, food or education.
At the end of a decade in which the cost of renewable energies, especially photovoltaic panels, fell by about 90%, and taking into account that Mozambique is a country where solar resources abound, it is natural that renewable energies, especially solar energy, represent a key axis in the goals set by the Government of Mozambique, which wants 20% of the energy produced in Mozambique, within 20 years, to be of renewable origin.
We have to keep up our spirits and persevere in what we can to improve the daily lives of Mozambicans
It could not be any other way, for both economic and environmental reasons. Climate change is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and Mozambique is in the front line of the impact of extreme weather phenomena, as were the cases of cyclones Idai and Kenneth in 2019, which caused unprecedented devastation in the regions through which they passed.
Mozambique always seems to be on the threshold of a development cycle so often postponed, and this feeling is today, as few times in the past, intensified by the situation of instability in Cabo Delgado, the base of the major natural gas production projects. There are many factors in the country’s development that are beyond our control. But we have to keep up our spirits and persevere in what we can to improve the day-to-day lives of Mozambicans. Renewable energies can also be renewing the hope for a better future.
