Mozambique’s First Utility Scale Solar Farm Project Gets Financing

40.5MW Solar Facility For Mozambique | Image: Scatec Solar

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) recently announced provision of USD $55 million to support construction of Mozambique’s first utility scale solar PV plant.
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world and according to Energypedia, just 21.22% of the population have access to electricity. As with many developing African nations, something Mozambique isn’t short on is renewable energy resources. For example, its solar irradiation resources are estimated at 4.5-7 kWh/m2/day.

The financing provided via IFC, which is part of the World Bank Group, will see the construction of a 40.5 MW solar farm in Mocuba, a city in the north of the country with a population of nearly 70,000. The facility will generate 77,000 MWh of clean electricity annually, enough to meet the energy needs of around 175,000 Mozambique households.

The solar power plant is being developed by a consortium consisting of Scatec Solar, Norfund, and Mozambique’s state-owned electricity utility, Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM).  Electricity generated by the facility will be sold to EdM as part of a 25-year power purchase agreement.

“Access to reliable energy is a prerequisite for development and this solar power plant will be an important first step in increasing Mozambique’s renewable power generation,” said Norfund’s CEO Kjell Roland.

Norfund has previously pointed out just 3% of the world’s electricity is generated in Africa, but 15% of the global population lives on the continent.

Scatec has significant experience on the continent, particularly over the border in South Africa where it has installed three solar plants –  a 75MW facility in Dreunber, a 40MW plant in Linde and a 75MW solar power station in Kalkbut. In the west of the continent, it has a 33MW facility in the pipeline for Malawi. In Rwanda, the company has an 8.5MW solar facility in operation. The largest project in its pipeline for Africa consists of six solar plants for Egypt totaling 400 MW capacity.

Big Solar Is Good, But So Is Small

Severe power shortages have negatively impacted on economic and social development in Mozambique. However, much of the country’s population live in rural communities scattered throughout the provinces that are not connected to the mains grid.

While big solar will be a welcome addition in the country, off grid micro-solar solutions and microgrids are also important in addressing energy poverty.

Another IFC/World Bank project is Lighting Africa, which has already enabled 20.5 million people across the continent to meet their basic electricity needs (lighting/handheld device charging) with solar power products. More than 13 million solar lights have been sold via local distributors since 2009. Aside from these devices providing affordable energy, collectively they’ve avoided 3,986,000 million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Lighting Africa has a goal of reaching 250 million more people by 2030.