The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed a mandate to arrange financing for the Dwangwa solar project in Malawi, developed by French energy company Voltalia. The future installation, which will have a combined capacity of 65 MW with a battery storage system, will enable this East African country to reduce its dependence on electricity imports as well as on hydroelectricity, which has already been weakened by the drought in the region.
Decarbonisation and diversification of the electricity mix holds promise for Malawi. A solar power plant with battery storage will soon be built near the Dwangwa lake area, 165 kilometres from the capital Lilongwe. The project, implemented by the independent power producer (IPP) Voltalia, recently received a promise of funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
But first, the World Bank Group’s private sector financing institution will ‘conduct due diligence’. The facility will have a capacity of 55 MW of solar energy and will be equipped with a 10 MWh battery storage system, for a combined capacity of 65 MW. The electricity generated will be sold to the state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
“Voltalia has 2.6 GW of generation capacity in operation and under construction and a portfolio of projects under development with a total capacity of 14.2 GW. The innovative project will have a particularly important positive impact on local development as it represents almost 10% of Malawi’s installed capacity,” says the French company headed by Sébastien Clerc.
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Despite an installed capacity of 400 MWp, only 15% of the population has access to electricity in this East African country, according to the World Bank. In this context, coupled with natural disasters and the high cost of living, the Malawian authorities are betting on the development of clean energy. It is in this context that the global producer of solar solutions, Solarcentury Africa, and the British company Renewable Energy Services Africa have signed an agreement to build the Nkhoma Deka solar photovoltaic power plant (50 MWp) in 2021. The plant is expected to feed electricity into the Malawian national grid.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
