The Rwandan government, Mara Corporation Ltd and SB Energy Corp have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a 30MW solar power plant with a storage facility.
The signing of the deal was during the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Conference which took place in New Delhi, India.
The Minister for Infrastructure, James Musoni and Clare Akamanzi, the chief executive officer for the Rwanda Development Board, represented government at the signing ceremony.
President Paul Kagame also attended the forum and spoke about the importance of increasing the adoption of solar energy underlining that it’s part of the answer to climate change.
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According to President Kagame, the world needs US $1tn to achieve one terawatt of solar power capacity by 2030.
“The one trillion dollars needed for solar investments globally in the coming years will obviously not come from governments alone,” he said.
Furthermore, public-private partnership is important. The International Solar Alliance’s proposed tools to mitigate credit risk sent an important signal to the market, that solar energy is a viable business.
Guarantee investments
In April 2016, ISA proposed a common guarantee fund and guarantee investments with a clear scope, definition of risk coverage and recourse options.
This intended to reduce transaction costs to mobilize the investment volumes necessary for scaling up solar energy projects.
ISA proposed setting up a US $300bn Global Solar Fund over 10 years with contributions from the World Bank, Overseas Development Assurances and from the Green Climate Fund to leverage US $300bn in investment from the corporate sector.
Recently, more joint financial partnership were achieved by various financiers for mobilizing funds for the deployment of over 1,000GW of solar energy.
