Initial agreements between both parties were signed in December 2015 granted Symbion Power Lake Kivu Ltd , a subsidiary of Symbion Power LLC from USA.
The new agreements were signed yesterday during a quarterly meeting that brought together investors in mining, electricity and officials from Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and line ministries.
The Minister of Infrastructure, Amb Claver Gatete said that 14 months after the signing of agreements electricity will be fed into the national grid.
“It is an important project because it will enable us increased access to electricity. As you know we currently generate 221 megawatts but expect to have added over 300 megawatts in the next five years,” he said.
“This will enable us to fast track the target of 556 megawatt by 2024 but we will go beyond,” added Gatete.
He explained that the investor will generate 56 megawatt in the initial phase and 50 more in the second phase.
The investor represented by Alan Stewart Laidlaw attributed his motive to invest in Rwanda to transparency in the country.
Symbion project joins another Contour Global on track to generate 100 megawatts under KivuWatt project extracting electricity from Methane Gas of which initial phase has started generating 26 megawatts.
RDB Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Emmanuel Hategeka said that the meeting brings together investors to explore existing opportunities and discuss challenges to seek a solution.
He explained that mining and electricity attracted investments worth USD $ 1 billion over the past three years equivalent to 20% of total investment registered by RDB within that period.
Lake Kivu is said to have 55 billion of Methane Gas and can generate 500 megawatts within 40 years.
The rate of citizens access to electricity in 1994 stood at 1% and 9% in 2010, rising to 51% at the end of February 2019. The country targets to connect all citizens in five years.
Leave a Reply