Construction of Ngonye solar Pv plant in Zambia commences

Zambia has announced to have commenced on construction works of the 34MW Ngonye solar Pv plant. Enel Green Power (EGP) who won the project development rights confirmed the news and said the plant with its clean, sustainable and reliable power, will play a significant role in helping Zambia to meet its electrification goals.

The Ngonye solar PV plant, located in Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone in the country’s south, is part of the World Bank Group’s Scaling Solar programme carried out by Zambia’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

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Project investment

The Italian power giant will be investing US $40m for the construction of the project. The group had also signed a financing agreement of US $34m with the International Financing Corporation (IFC), the IFC-Canada Climate Change Program and European Investment Bank (EIB) who offered US $10 m, US $12 m, and US $11.75 m respectively.

“The start of construction of Ngonye solar plant is a new milestone in the strengthening of the Enel Group’s presence in the African continent, where we already are the first private renewable operator in terms of installed capacity. This will also demonstrate once again that renewable utility-scale power plants are the most effective solution to give access to electricity in the continent,” said Antonio Cammisecra, Head of EGP.

Diversifying Zambia’s energy mix

Mr Antonio said that the Ngonye solar plant is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019 and upon completion, the solar Pv Plant according to Enel is expected to produce a total capacity of 34MW and around 70GWh of electricity per year

The government of Zambia has also set a goal of installing up to 600MW of solar power within the next two to three years with an aim of diversifying the country’s energy mix which is currently dominated by hydro power.