Meeting electricity demand and generating revenue from production of solar and wind energy

Globally now, electricity is considered as a basic human right. It is imperative that countries seek to increase their national electrification rates and the share of renewable energy in the generation mix in an attempt to achieve universal access by 2030 as stipulated by the UN's Agenda 2030. In an effort to explore the possibilities of achieving this for Lesotho, the study seeks to model local 60 MW solar PV and 36 MW wind energy plants that could meet the growing national energy demand as envisaged by Independent Power Producers, while also generating revenue by selling excess energy into the Southern African Power Pool. It is observed that the inclusion of solar PV power supply would reduce the 42
^%
monthly average imports supply by 12
^%
, resulting in monthly average imports supply of 30%. The dependence on imports would also be substantially decreased when solar PV is coupled with wind energy, resulting in a monthly average of 75% of the demand being met by local production. Under the current dispatch strategy, on an annual basis, most (95%) of the energy from the solar PV would be consumed locally while 73% of wind generation would be absorbed by the local load while 27% will be available for SAPP export mainly under the preferred Day-Ahead Market.