Two off grid projects have recently been announced in Nigeria, aiming to add to the growing momentum of the off grid sector across Africa
The first project, headed up by Pan Africa Solar, is an 80MW utility scale photovoltaic power plant located in Katsina State, near the town of Kankia. The project focuses on a stable state in the north of the country, where renewables are the only long term sustainable option due to lack of available hydro resources and gas supply.
The project is expected to integrate panels mounted on tilting structures that track the path of the sun throughout the day, constructed on 210 ha of land.
Pan Africa Solar has partnered with BBOXX on a second project to supply the distributed energy service that is operating in Kano State in northern Nigeria, with hopes to expand across the country.
Anshul Patel, vice-president of business development in BBOXX, said, “Nigeria has 60mn people who lack access to electricity. To date, 2000 people have been impacted by our work in Kano, and the business is currently in the process of scaling its operations.”
Commenting on the partnership, he added, “The partnership between BBOXX and PAS is instrumental in leveraging expertise in the off-grid business combined with local market knowledge to successfully scale operations with a goal of electrifying one million people by 2020.”
In order to provide a networking platform for off grid technology providers, financiers and regional leaders working in Africa’s off grid industry, EnergyNet is going to organise Off the Grid Summit from 6-8 February 2018, in Kampala. The programme aims to collaborates with partners such as the Shell Foundation, ElectriFi, Akon Lighting Africa and Solektra in developing and financing off grid projects to electrify rural communities in Africa.
This meeting is co-located with the regional East Africa Energy & Infrastructure Summit. Both meetings are expected to unite governments from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia, leading utility and regulatory companies from the region as well as international financiers, donor organisations and power developers. The focus will be the need to unlock investment in energy for regional growth.
