Access Solar’s Soroti power plant launches Dec 12

December 5, 2016 in Business, Companies, Energy, Renewable by Editor

KAMPALA, DECEMBER5 – After a couple of misses, Access Power will finally be launching its 10MW solar power station on December 12,  in Soroti at a function where President Museveni is expected to be in attendance.

Conclusion of construction activities for the power station, initially scheduled for July slipped to September while earlier plans for a November launch were also put off pending an opening in President Museveni’s diary. Sources now confirm that the event is on for next Monday.

Project promoters Access Uganda Solar, a tie-up between Access Power Middle East and Africa and Luxembourg based Eren Renewable Energy (EREN RE), launched construction of the $19million power station at Alaki village on March 17.

The largest solar farm so far in Uganda, the power station promises to bring electric power supply to some 40,000 households in eastern Uganda. The power station with a projected plant availability of 25 percent will feed directly into the national grid, supplementing day-time power supplies to Soroti.

The project is funded by a combination of equity and long term debt with the debt provided by FMO while equity is provided by Eren RE and Access. KFW has provided a $9.5 million grant in upfront payment to the developers to buy down the tariff to about 11cents a kilowatt hour.

Although it will have a nominal capacity of 10MW and a design life of 30 years, the plant is scalable to 20MW.

Sixty percent of Africa’s population lives without access to reliable electricity according to the International Energy Agency. But this is bound to change as the continent becomes a prime destination for investment with $25 billion invested in renewable energy over the past six years.