Most electric power is generated thermally in installations run by the Botswana Power Corp., a public enterprise established in 1970. Electric generating capacity consists of the 132 MW Morupole coal-fired plant and the 60 MW coal-fired plant at Selebi-Phikwe. Total installed capacity at the beginning of 2001 was 0.217 million kW. Net production of electricity in 2000 was0.5 billion kWh, about 15 times the 1972 output, all provided by fossil fuels. In the same year, consumption of electricity totaled1.5 billion kWh. Coal production was 880,000 tons in 1998, and met nearly the entire national demand. Coal is mined solely at Morupole by Anglo American, mostly for the generation of electricity. The government is considering constructing a coal-fired power plant at the same coal field, which would be designed to export power to South Africa beginning next century.
Several companies are prospecting for oil, but none had been discovered as of 1999. Petrocanada has an exploratory well in the western Kalahari. Amoco has studied the possibility of extracting methane from coal beds.
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