BECO: Solar Over Mogadishu

After three decades without a functioning national grid, electricity in Somalia is supplied by private companies running diesel generators, at some of the highest tariffs anywhere in the world. BECO, which serves around 280,000 customers across Mogadishu, Balad, Jowhar, Afgooye, Kismayu, Barawe and Marka, commissioned an 8 MWp solar plant in Mogadishu in 2020 — the largest in the country — and has been displacing diesel with it since. Solar now supplies roughly 36% of daytime generation and 18% of the total, with a stated target of 80% in daylight hours. Its total capacity of about 35 MW still sits against an estimated city demand of 200 MW. In a country routinely written about only as a crisis, this is infrastructure being built anyway.