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Solar Manufacturing
Solar Manufacturing Hub
An essential element of Botala’s business model is to contribute to the development of Botswana’s business capacity and the growth of commercial enterprises with an off-take market for cbm and electricity Botala proposes to generate.
Botala recognised the desirability of finding an appropriate partner with technical and management skills in the renewables sector. This led to the signing of a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Solar Finland, a recognised leader in solar energy.
Introduction to Solar Finland
Solar Finland is a privately owned company headquartered in Salo, Finland. For more than four decades Solar Finland developed solutions that helped to decrease the use of conventional energy through their solar technology base. During years of research and development they have created numerous sophisticated technologies and developed the world’s first fully automated solar panel factory in Salo, Finland.
Solar Finland has a global reputation in setting industry standards in terms of product quality and energy production. Their goal is to innovate and create new products and solutions to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.
They have a profound understanding of solar photovoltaic (pv) systems operating in harsh conditions and can ensure that their products deliver consistent performance under these conditions. Their Finnish design technology and know-how enables the best solutions for harvesting solar energy for private consumers, commercial business, and the public sector.
Solar Finland has an excellent track record of developing and implementing local solar manufacturing capacity anchored on local off-take and skills development.
Key Elements of the MoU
A summary of the material terms of the MoU follows:
- Cooperation to explore, finalise and execute the mutual business opportunity related to the generation of solar and gas electricity generation and distributing SaloTM Solar Panels to markets in Botswana and neighbouring Southern African Development Communities (SADC) countries (Project).
- Exploring the potential to set up Independent Power Producers (IPP) in Botswana and neighbouring SADC countries.
- Exploring the potential to set up a Joint Venture (JV) for the manufacture of SaloTM Solar Panels with SaloTM Automated PV Module Production Line in Botala’s proposed Leupane Industrial Park.
- The MoU identifies three phases of Project development:
- Stage-1: Botala will lead and coordinate, with the assistance of Solar Finland, an overarching business case for presentation to key stakeholders in Botswana in September/October 2022.
- Stage-2: If the Business Case produced and presented in Stage-1 indicates that the Project is likely to achieve the required support from the Government of Botswana, then the Parties will finalise the required business plans, financing applications and other agreement(s) and documentation needed to establish Solar IPP(s) and the JV to manufacture SaloTM Solar Panels with Financial Partners and local JV Partner(s) within 6 months of the mutual approval to move from Stage 1 to Stage 2.
- Stage-3: Develop and agree the process of setting up Solar IPP(s) and the JV to manufacture SaloTM Solar Panels with local partner(s) who will be identified, mainly by Botala for Solar Finland’s approval.
- In addition, it is the intent of Botala and Solar Finland for further Research and Development work to include the potential for hydrogen production, battery technology and other complementary technologies.
- Botala and Solar Finland will focus on a small-scale pilot programme likely to be located on Botala’s proposed Serowe Energy Hub site.
The MoU otherwise contains terms considered standard for agreements of this nature.
Solar PV Manufacturing
Botala has conducted a prefeasibility study that has demonstrated sufficient value to Botala, in partnership with Solar Finland, to proceed with ongoing studies to build a state-of-the-art, fully automated plan to produce high quality solar PV panels. These will significantly benefit Botswana and Southern Africa. With the SEZA license being granted in June 2023 for the proposed site of the Leupane Energy Hub and Industrial Park. Botala is leading the PV Studies and would own the manufacturing plant jointly with Solar Finland and other funding partners. Botala will be the leading operator; the key attractions are:
- Supply high quality solar PV panels to solar projects within Southern Africa.
- Promote and establish hybrid solar/gas energy plants and supply the gas and solar panels.
- Cooperate with Scandinavian Green Energy Funds and companies in Africa.
