SOLAR ENERGY
SOLAR ENERGY: 100 MW UNTIL 2025
Angola has a high solar resource potential, with an annual average global horizontal radiation between 1.350 and 2.070 kWh/m2/year. Solar energy constitutes the largest and more uniformely distributed renewable resource of the country.
The most appropriate technology to harness the solar resource in Angola is the production of electricity through photovoltaic systems. This technology currently presents the fastest ºinstallation time (less than 1 year) and lowest maintenance costs.
The use of batteries along with photovoltaic systems allows to totally replace thermal generation, however this being a very costly solution its application only justifies from the economical point of view for decentralized small scale applications where the diesel transportation cost remains high. For other situations, the photovoltaic systems without batteries will reduce the use of diesel representing a complementary cost-effective solution to generators.
Medium and large scale projects in the Eastern System and in isolated systems - without batteries - present in Angola a levelized cost of electricity inferior to $0,2/kWh, representing therefore an economic alternative to diesel. In Central and Southern systems it is possible to reach costs under $0,15/kWh, and if in the beggining the projects are remunerated at the same cost as that of diesel avoided, the levelized cost drops down
to less than $0,1/kWh after the 3rd year. Also, it is expected that the cost of this technology will continue to decrease.
Based on these results, the Strategy has set a goal of installing 100 MW of solar projects by 2025. Analysis of the Rural Electrification Plan (presented in the first part of this strategy) allowed identifying a potential for integrating 22 MW of solar photovoltaic projects in the rural electrification effort: 10 MW
in solar villages, 10 MW to complement diesel generation in municipality townships electrified by isolated systems and 2 MW in the 100% solar project of Rivungo.
The following map shows the Atlas of the solar resource in Angola as well as the various locations identified with a significant potential for installing multiple GW of solar photovoltaic projects. It also includes the sites selected for the installation of 78 MW connected to the main grid, both medium and large scale projects, necessary to reach the established 100 MW target. These sites were selected for their low levelized cost of energy and are mainly located in the center and south part of the country.
ATLAS, POTENTIAL PROJECTS AND PHOTOVOLTAIC PROJECTS SELECTED TO REACH THE 100 MW TARGET