$1.5 billion: To be Invested in Renewable Energy in Angola by Sun Africa

By Richard Adorsu-

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Accra GHANA – Angola has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with solar project developer, Sun Africa, and U.S.-based AfricaGlobal Schaffer, for a $1.5 Billion mini-grid project to supply solar electricity and drinking water to the southern provinces of Cunene, Namibe, Cuando Cubango and Huíla in Angola.

During a visit to the U.S. in September, Angola’s Minister of Energy and Water, H.E. João Baptista Borges, accompanied by the President of Angola, H.E. João Lourenço, signed the MoU during a roundtable on investments in Angola initiated by the United States-Angola Chamber of Commerce.

Financial resources for the project will be raised by Sun Africa from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Expected to stimulate economic development, the project will see the creation of the largest mini-grid energy project on the continent.

“The electrification will be done either through conventional solutions with the extension of lines and the construction of substations or using solar energy. The U.S. is one of the leading countries in the installation of these systems, mainly in the remote regions, where this solution is the most available and accessible,” stated Minister Borges.

The Minister indicated that the period of execution for the project has yet to be defined, with the two companies stating that implementation could occur in two years.

One of the major goals of the project is to reduce the gap in electrification between the northern and southern parts of the country by extending the national electricity network. During the first phase of Angola’s Energy Sector Efficiency and Expansion Program, the country’s government received a loan of $530 million from the African Development Bank to transfer part of the hydroelectric power supply from the north to the country’s energy-impoverished southern provinces.

For New Africa Daily News Richard Adorsu Reports,  Africa Correspondent