The Ministry of Energy in Sierra Leone has inaugurated the Solar Park Freetown clean energy project. The landmark 6MW Solar Park Freetown Project was launched by the President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Enest Bai Koroma. Accompanying him was the former minister of foreign Affairs, Dr. Samura Kamara and minister of energy, Henry Macauley.
The project won the first prestigious International Renewable Energy Agency and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (IRENA/ADFD) financing facility.
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According to the ministry this project is specially designed to include a number of institutional and critical human resource arrangements. This will facilitate sustainable management as well as international best practices of the IRENA/ADFD project facility.
Leading up to the commencement, the government said it made progress in the ratification of the ADFD Loan, establishment of a working Project Implementation Unit (PIU) at the Ministry of Energy, and the recent re-appointment of the UAE based Advanced Science and Innovation Company (ASIC) LLC as the project manager and lead of the project.
Solar Park Freetown Project
The total cost of the project, which has been successfully reduced over the year by the Project Consortium (PM & EPC), include in addition to the 6MW power plant, assets such as an additional extension and upgrade of road and grid-power infrastructure. This includes a necessary extension of the 161KV grid power line, a distribution substation, and a MV/HV substation as part of the total project, which will significantly benefit the people of Sierra Leone.
All the administrative and force majeur problems have been solved. Furthermore, the project manager and the EPC SMRT have already started work.
The ministry further highlighted that the project total costs have also been reduced from the initial US $18m allocation to $12.6m for all project components.
