Phanes Group, an international solar energy development and investment management company, has acquired three 100 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 Nigeria’s ambitions to generate 2000 MW of power from renewable sources by 2020.
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, will benefit 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.
While speaking on the project, 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, 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,” continued Haupts.
“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.”
As the Nigerian government targets 75 percent national grid connection by 2020 at a rate of 1.5 million households per year, the group has affirmed its commitment: “We are wholly committed to realizing Africa’s solar potential which also means identifying ways of utilizing our off-grid and micro-grid expertise to light up remote communities too,” said Haupts.
“In parallel with our utility scale grid-connected work we will pursue and deploy solar to Nigeria’s rural communities where citizens are being held back by a lack of electrification – helping to transform the lives of millions of Nigerians,” he added
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.
