Construction of the first utility-scale solar plant in East Africa is about to commence.
The USD $23.7 million plant will boost the country’s power generation capacity by approximately 8%. The solar farm is expected to be operational in July this year.
Located 60 km from the capital of Kigali on land belonging to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, annual electricity production of the facility is estimated at 16 million kilowatt-hours. Electricity generated by the project will be purchased by the Rwanda Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority under a 25 year agreement.
Project developer Gigawatt Global, has a 20% stake in the project. The company has set a goal of providing clean electricity for 50 million people by 2020.
Scatec Solar and Norfund will be majority owners of the facility.
“At the end of last year, we grid connected the first utility scale solar park in Southern Africa. The 75 MW Kalkbult solar park is currently the largest in Africa,” said Raymond Carlsen, CEO of Scatec Solar.
“Our objective has been to bring the experience gained in South Africa to other African nations, and we are pleased to team up with Norfund, FMO and EAIF and introduce large scale solar energy to Eastern Africa.”
Capital investment for the project is being sourced from FMO, the Dutch Development Bank, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund and Norfund.
Only 17 per cent of Rwanda’s population has access to electricity. The country’s government has set a goal of increasing its current 110MW overall electricity generation capacity to 563 MW by 2017; primarily through hydro, methane, geothermal and solar power.
The solar farm will also provide an important revenue stream for Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, a residential and educational community for youth orphaned during and after the genocide in 1994; during which an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans were killed.
