AfDB grants € 18 million loan for Djermaya solar power plant project
The African Development Bank on Tuesday signed financing agreements for an 18 million euro loan to finance the Djermaya solar power plant, which is a flagship project of the “Desert to power” initiative.
“The African Development Bank has deployed various financing instruments for this project,” said Walé Shonibare, director of the Bank’s Energy Financial Solutions Department. It mobilized funding from Proparco and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund as well as concessional funds from the African Renewable Energy Fund (SEFA) to support the development phase and provide technical assistance to the Chad electricity company for energy storage. The Bank has also deployed a partial risk guarantee in order to attract private investment and mobilize actors such as Power Africa to support the development phase of the project. ”
The Djermaya photovoltaic solar power plant, with a production capacity of 34 megawatts and storage of four megawatt hours, will be built 30 kilometers north of N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The interconnection infrastructure includes a 33 kilovolt (kV), 18 kilometer waste line and two 33 / 90kV transformers at the Lamadji substation.
“This project, carried out within the framework of the Desert to Power initiative, initiated by the African Development Bank, is a flagship and pioneering project in several respects,” said Kevin Kariuki, Vice-President of the Bank, in charge of Electricity. , Energy, Climate and Green Growth. It is the first solar power plant in Chad, the first electricity storage infrastructure and also the first public-private partnership in the form of an independent power producer in the country. This model of intervention could be replicated in other countries of the Sahel in order to attract essential investments in the electricity sector and accelerate the transition to clean energy. ”
The project, which is supported by the Chadian government, will contribute to the sustainability of the electricity sector in Chad by reducing production costs and will represent 10% of the energy supplied to the interconnected system. At least 25,000 people will be connected to the network. Djermaya CDEN Energy has signed an electricity purchase agreement for a period of twenty years with the Chadian National Electricity Company.
The project is in line with the country’s commitments under Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It will allow the diversification of the energy mix by introducing renewable energies into a thermal production system running on fossil fuels, thus reducing carbon emissions by 38,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
