Burundi Commits To Double Solar Power Capacity

Burundi has officially launched the country’s first utility-scale solar field, as part of a campaign to use renewable energy to increase residential and business access to electricity.

The 7.5MW grid-connected solar power project in Mubuga will be operational in 2021. Since then, it has supplied more than 10% of Burundi’s power.

During the ceremonial opening, President Évariste Ndayishimiye committed to expanding the plant’s producing capacity with the help of development partners.

“We celebrate economic and climate progress in Burundi, which is open to direct foreign investment to catalyse economic growth for our people,” President Ndayishimiye said in a statement released by Gigawatt Global. This renewable energy company developed the field. “Thanks to this solar field, and my agreement to double its size of it, we have increased energy security that can reliably run agro-businesses.”

Burundi is one of the world’s least electrified countries, with just around 11% of its 11 million inhabitants (or roughly 1.2 million people) accessing electricity.

Most of the country’s electricity is generated by hydropower, but a lack of energy has pushed many to rely on expensive and toxic diesel fuel. Because of the Mubuga project, the electricity generated by the solar field has been able to replace considerable amounts of diesel power, increasing production to new consumers.

Partnering for clean energy development

It took Gigawatt Global, a worldwide green energy developer and independent power producer for Africa, six years to develop and build Burundi’s first solar plant.

Gigawatt began building on the solar field in 2017, but it will not be completed until January 2020. Commercial operations began in October of 2021.

However, before the project went live, it obtained financial backing from the Energy and Environment Partnership (a combined fund of Finland, the United Kingdom, and Austria) and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries to pay the costs of construction studies.

The African-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme also supported the field, engaging in the project with due care.

The project’s development was supported by a partnership that included pan-African private equity investment Inspired Evolution through its Evolution II Fund, the UK government-backed Renewable Energy Performance Platform, and Gigawatt Global.

The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has been a pioneer in the areas of Political Risk Insurance and construction loan refinancing.

The project, the country’s first grid-connected solar development by an independent power producer, is intended to open the path for more foreign investment in the renewable energy industry.

“This project demonstrates how the world community can realize shared development goals by utilizing international financing facilities best suited for frontier and emerging markets,” Gigawatt Global Burundi SA Managing Director Michael Fichtenberg said.