Nearly half of Mozambique families lack any electricity at home

Nearly half of Mozambique families lack any electricity at home, and for those that do, almost 20% rely on solar panels for self-consumption, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The Survey on the Impact of Access to Sustainable Energy in 2022, completed this month by INE, revealed that 50.1% of the country’s over 6.3 million households had access to an electricity connection.

Of this, 32% accessed electricity through the national grid, and 18.1% through other sources.

The report indicates that 49.9% of households lack connection to the grid or other electricity solutions, a situation worse in rural areas (86.8%), Tete province (84.7%), and Zambezia (83.3%).

It further notes that “the few households with electricity in rural areas” have higher access through solar energy (85.3%), rechargeable batteries (74.9%), and dry cell batteries (71.4%) compared to urban areas, which use national grid electricity (72.2%) and electric generators (58.3%).

For families accessing electricity at home from sources other than the national or local grid, the dominant solutions are dry cell batteries (47.1%), followed by self-consumption solar energy (19.4%), rechargeable batteries (1.8%), and generators (0.5%).

Regarding Mozambique’s energy profile, INE states that the country has a potential installed electric power production capacity of 2,966 MegaWatts, with hydropower being the main source, accounting for 77% of the total capacity.

“Natural gas production is the primary source of non-renewable energies, contributing about 10% of global production.

In Mozambique, 50% of the produced energy is exported to neighboring countries, with South Africa being the main destination, accounting for approximately 80.0% of exports,” the INE study also highlights.

With information from Lusa

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