{{The Rwandan government is set to commission the first utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at eastern Rwanda’s Rwamagana district in August 2014.}}<\/p>\n
The project, with a production capacity of 8.5MW, has commenced testing, stated local reports. <\/p>\n
Dutch company Gigawatt Global is the developer of the project, while Norwegian firm Scatec Solar has agreed to operate and maintain the plant.<\/p>\n
Scatec Solar signed a deal worth US$23.7mn to finance the solar project. The Norwegian company will handle the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the project, and Remote Partners would manage and support the initiative locally. <\/p>\n
The project has been funded by Norfund (Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries) and KLP.<\/p>\n
Once completed, the plant would increase Rwanda\u2019s power production capacity by nearly eight per cent. Currently, less than one in five homes in the country have access to power.<\/p>\n
Silas Lwakabamba, minister of infrastructure of Rwanda, said, \u201dGeneration and provision of electricity to all Rwandans is a priority for the government. <\/p>\n
This initiative to produce 8.5MW of clean energy is an important addition towards closing Rwanda\u2019s current energy gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rwanda hopes that nearly 50 per cent of its population can access power by 2017. <\/p>\n
This means, it would have to increase its capacity to 560MW from the present 110MW. <\/p>\n
Government officials added that they are encouraging private sector involvement and private-public partnerships (PPP) as part of their development policy. <\/p>\n
Solar energy is an important part of Rwanda\u2019s plan to boost power production.<\/p>\n
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