Firm to develop 100MW grid-connected solar PV plant

By Editor |   18 November 2016   |   1:43 am  

Solar field

Phanes Group, the international solar energy developer, investment and asset manager headquartered in Dubai, has unveiled plans to co-develop three 100 Megawatt (MW) grid-connected solar PV plants in Nigeria.

The ground-mounted projects is expected to significantly raise Nigeria’s current solar capacity and contribute to the Nigerian government’s ambitions to generate 2,000 MW of power from renewable sources by 2020.

According to the company, the projects span three locations, including the Mando area of Kaduna, Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi and Sokoto in the North-West of Nigeria. The latter – in Sokoto – benefits from one of the highest irradiation levels (2210 kWh/m2/year) in the country and is backed by one of the 14 recently signed government Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with utility-scale solar power developers – which will collectively add around 1,200 MW of solar capacity to the grid.

The company added in a statement that the first 50 MW of Phanes Group’s Sokoto project will be grid-connected as early as the first quarter of 2018, and the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The Kebbi and Kaduna projects will be delivered under the Hasken-Rana brand (meaning ‘sunshine’ in Hausa – one of the most spoken languages in West Africa) – a joint venture between Phanes Group and its Nigerian partners, and are due for completion before the end of 2019.

Chief Executive Officer of Phanes Group, Martin Haupts, said: “Nigeria’s policy makers have worked proactively to address the nation’s immediate and long term electrification challenges through the introduction of attractive clean energy policies, and we are beginning to see the fruits of those policies.”

Despite its challenges, he noted that Nigeria’s potential for solar development is unquestionable and from a standing start it may soon emerge as solar leader among its sub-Saharan African peers.

Haupts said: “These new commercially viable projects demonstrate the strength of public, private partnerships whilst setting Nigeria on positive to course greater energy security and economic development – a model for African solar deployment.”

Chief Operating Officer of Phanes Group, Andrea Haupts said the company is wholly committed to realising Africa’s solar potential which also means identifying ways of utilising the company’s off-grid and micro-grid expertise to light up remote communities too.

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