Africa

The plant is being developed by German company Droege Energy as an unsolicited IPP project. The electricity produced by the floating array will be bought by local utility Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (ESCOM).

The funds will be used for electrification projects in West Africa and the Sahel to bring electricity to 1.7 million people.

Malawian independent power producer Golomoti JCM Solar Corporation Limited is planning a PV plant in Golomoti, 100km south east of Lilongwe. The project will sell power to utility ESCOM under a long-term PPA.

Through the tender, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is seeking independent power producers (IPPs) to provide more electricity connections within the African country. It joined the International Solar Alliance at the beginning of November.

The 7 MW solar facility will sell power to local state-owned utility Nigelec. The project was developed with the support of the Indian government.

The International Renewable Energy Agency says Asia is offering the largest amount of people mini grid access, with the development of such systems mostly led by governments. Global installed capacity reached 308 MW at the end of 2017.

The project is expected to cost approximately 47.2 billion CFA (around $81.5 million), and to have an annual production capacity of 118 GWh.

According to a UC Berkeley study, the falling costs of storage technologies will make it possible for Sub-Saharan countries to rely on decentralized systems based mainly on solar-plus-storage, bringing access to electricity to more than 600 million people.

The solar plant has been declared a project of strategic interest to fast-track construction. It will be located at the 100 MW Gorou Banda thermal power station commissioned 18 months ago.