An international consortium led by Powergrids plans to invest $100 million in three off-grid solar plants intended to power the cities of Gemena, Bumba, and Isiro, which are located in the country’s northern region and currently have no connection to the country’s power network. Contact online >>
An international consortium led by Powergrids plans to invest $100 million in three off-grid solar plants intended to power the cities of Gemena, Bumba, and Isiro, which are located in the country’s northern region and currently have no connection to the country’s power network.
U.K. government-backed electricity network company Gridworks, Madrid-based developer AEE Power, and Eranove, a French company active in the management of public services and in the production of electricity and drinking water in Africa, have secured three 22-year concession agreements from the Ministry of Hydraulic Resources and Electricity of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the deployment of a $100 million off-grid solar project.
“The agreements will see the consortium develop, build and operate three large-scale, solar-hybrid, off-grid utilities,” Gridworks said in a statement. The plants will supply power to three cities, Gemena, Bumba, and Isiro, which are located in the country''s northern region and currently have no connection to the country''s power network.
The consortium was selected as a preferred bidder in the frame of a tender held under the umbrella of the Essor Access to Energy (A2E) Initiative, which is a UK government-funded program launched in 2019 to supports the DRC Government''s mini-grid auction and project preparation process.
The company expects to reach financial close for the three projects within 14 months. The plants are to be built by the Moyi Power joint venture and are expected to be completed within 18 months after the start of construction.
According to the latest figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency, DR Congo only had 20 MW of installed PV capacity at the end of 2020. The country has one of the lowest levels of access to electricity in the world, with only 9% of the population being supplied with power. This percentage in rural areas drops to as far as 1%. It has an installed capacity of just 2.67 GW, of which 2.54 GW comes from hydropower and 135 MW from thermal power.
So how are they going to store enough power for three cities? No battery or series of batteries have ever been built yet to power a city overnight. Adelaids giant battery can only power Adelaide for around four minutes.
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Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 18, 2022— IFC has begun work with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to bring clean, solar energy to over 1.5 million homes, businesses, schools, and clinics in the country under the World Bank Group''s Scaling Mini-Grid (SMG) program.
The SMG program was designed to help the DRC and other emerging countries establish public-private partnership mini-grids to bring low cost, renewable energy to consumers. In the DRC, the program expects to secure funding of $400 million this year from private investors to deploy 180 megawatts of installed solar PV capacity to the cities of Mbuji-Mayi and Kananga.
As part of the project, IFC and the DRC government partners have met with local authorities in Kasai-Oriental and Kasai-Central provinces, launched studies to assess local electricity demand in the region, and have begun identifying potential sites where solar photovoltaic (PV) plants will be installed.
Only about 19 percent of the DRC''s population had access to electricity in 2019 according to World Bank data, underscoring the urgent need for increased power production and distribution to reach consumers and meet the government''s target of connecting 30 percent by 2024.
"Renewable energy is a priority sector for the DRC government to foster growth, income generation and job creation, while supporting the ambitious goal of providing universal access to electricity," said Olivier Mwenze Mukaleng, the DRC Minister of Hydraulic Resources and Electricity. "We look forward to leveraging the WBG Scaling Mini-Grid''s platform to electrify more than 100 cities ranging from 50,000 to 3 million inhabitants across DRC''s 145 territories."
"IFC is proud to help the DRC increase electricity access through the Scaling Mini-Grid program," said Sylvain Kakou, IFC''s Country Manager for Central Africa. "Championing the power sector in Africa is crucial to spur development and the private sector will be front and center of that drive."
Green mini grids are powered by a clean energy source—usually solar PV—combined with battery storage and a local smart distribution system, and bring power to homes, industry, and businesses alike. While the market remains in its early stages, innovations in technology and business models, coupled with declining costs, are making them an increasingly relevant solution in Africa, with the potential to connect 30 percent of the Africans gaining access to electricity by 2030.
The SMG project in the DRC also features a number of innovations, including a first-of-a-kind minimum revenue guarantee that aims to help de-risk and unlock further private investments in the space.
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