Botswana is set to build its first utility-scale solar power plant after developers secured $100 million in financing, positioning the country to ease domestic electricity pressure and sell power into a regional market serving 360 million people.
The 100-megawatt Tati Solar Project, developed by Etavi Renewables — a Botswana-based renewable energy developer partly owned by Shumba Energy Ltd — is expected to reach commercial operation in 2027.
Rand Merchant Bank, a unit of South Africa’s FirstRand Ltd., acted as lead arranger for the financing package.
The project will sell electricity into the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), a cross-border trading platform that allows utilities and independent power producers to exchange power across 12 countries, including Botswana, South Africa, and Mozambique. With an operating capacity of approximately 47.7 gigawatts, SAPP is widely regarded as Africa’s most advanced regional electricity market.
A test case for market-based renewables
The Tati project is being watched as a bellwether for investor appetite in African renewable energy developed on a merchant or market basis — where revenue depends on selling into a competitive pool rather than a single off-take agreement with a state utility. A successful close and delivery could encourage similar structures elsewhere on the continent.
For Botswana specifically, the project arrives as the country works to reduce strain on its domestic power system. The broader southern African region faces compounding pressures: rising electricity demand, drought-reduced hydropower output, ageing generation infrastructure, and grid weaknesses that limit the reliable integration of variable renewables such as solar and wind.
Those structural challenges also underscore what SAPP will need to absorb more renewable capacity at scale — storage systems, including batteries and pumped hydro, to stabilise supply and maintain grid reliability across member states.
If the Tati Solar Project delivers on schedule, Botswana could shift from a net electricity importer to a regional supplier, a transition that would carry both economic and strategic weight within SAPP’s evolving power market.
