Maputo — The Turkish company, Karpowership, intends to install a floating thermoelectric power plant in Maputo Bay, in order to sell electricity to five million people in Mozambique, as well as exporting it to neighboring countries, especially South Africa.
The plant will have the capacity to produce 470-500 megawatts (MW) of energy.
The maritime infrastructure, which will be powered by natural gas, is now travelling along the African coast via the Indian Ocean, having set sail from Indonesia and it has the Canary Islands as its final destination.
According to Karpowership commercial director, Zeynep Yilmaz, speaking to reporters in Maputo, during the presentation of the floating thermoelectric power station, the ship, which is currently docked at Maputo Port, will also create jobs for young Mozambicans.
"This plant can supply energy to around five million inhabitants and also export to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia, as well as injecting money back into the Mozambican economy. With its operation, thousands of jobs will be created for Mozambique's young generation', Yilmaz said.
Yilmaz explained that the purpose of the ship's journey along the coast is to showing the nature of the infrastructure and provide more information on its management and operation, taking into account that the electricity it produces has a very low economic cost.
"We hope to do this by using Mozambique's natural gas, because the country has gas available in Maputo that comes from the Temane field (in the southern province of Inhambane) and that gas is available today. We can use this gas to distribute more electricity to Mozambicans and it can also be exported to create a flow of money for the Mozambican economy', she said.
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Over the last year, the South African state company Eskom went into talks with the Mozambican publicly owned electricity company, EDM, for buying the output from a 415 Megawatt Karpowership power station.
Eskom took its decision after it declined to sign agreements to procure power from facilities the Turkish company planned to moor off the South African coast, although the company had won, in 2021, a tender to supply 1,220 megawatts of power to South Africa.
Environmental objections, a lawsuit and Eskom's demand for an indemnity against any adverse outcomes from corruption allegations made the South African authorities stall the deal.
However, Eskom may be forced to buy Karpowership power via Mozambique, since its current electricity production cannot meet the demand.
