Malawi’s first solar power plant is now operational. President of the Republic of Malawi Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera announced that the project was successfully completed under a public-private partnership (PPP).
Dubbed ‘Salima solar power plant’ the facility, which has a capacity of 60 MWp, is the first solar power plant to be connected to Malawi’s national electricity grid. The project was originally developed by JCM Power Corporation, Matswani, and InfraCo Africa, a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company. Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), the Dutch Development Finance Company, later joined the project in its construction phase, along with JCM Power and InfraCo Africa.
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Clean electricity
“This is a model for future projects in several ways, in particular, it demonstrates that Malawi is an attractive destination for private sector investment in energy,” said President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
The Salima solar plant will be capable of producing 154 GWh per year. The consortium will sell the clean electricity generated at Salima to the state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
The solar plant is guaranteed by the Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), a financial institution established by seven Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries with technical and financial support from the World Bank to provide insurance against political and commercial risks.
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