African utility secures cash for floating solar studies

Mozambique's national electric utility, Electricidade de Moçambique, will receive a $2.5 million grant from an African Development Bank fund to help accelerate its clean power plans.

Some of the cash – to be disbursed from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa cashpot administered by the AfDB and funded by the governments of Denmark, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States – will help fund feasibility studies into a floating solar plant on the Chicamba reservoir in Mozambique.

A recent statement by the AfDB to announce the grant award said that feasibility studies into other floating solar sites on EDM hydropower reservoirs would also be partly funded by the grant.

The money will also be used for studies into the possibility of adding battery storage at up to 10 sites, to help EDM staff prepare tenders and to equip the utility's personnel with the skills to develop and manage renewables projects, all under the aegis of the government's Mozambique Renewable Energy Integration Program.

“With the support of the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, Mozambique’s capacity to integrate larger shares of variable renewables will increase its efforts to become a major regional electricity supplier,” said Daniel Schroth, AfDB renewable energy and energy efficiency department director. “Given that Mozambique is one of the most highly climate-vulnerable countries in the world, the project will help build a more sustainable and resilient power generation infrastructure.”