IFC To Back 44 MW Solar Plus Storage Malawi Project By Voltalia

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector body of the World Bank and Voltalia, a renewable energy company have signed an agreement to arrange financing for the Dwanga Renewable Energy project at Malawi, an east African country.

This project has two components which comprise 44 Megawatt (MW) of solar and power and 10 MW of storage. Under the pact, the IFC will explore the possibility of funding the project.

As per the project design, the renewable energy project will ensure supply of clean energy to the state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Ltd for a period of 20 years.

The innovative project will have a particularly important positive impact on local development: it represents almost 10% of the installed capacity in the country, where less than 15% of the population has a connection to the electricity grid.

“We are very grateful to IFC for supporting us once again. This project is strategic for Malawi and illustrative of the region where access to electricity is particularly difficult. We are proud to deliver on our local development mission with infrastructure that also improves the global environment “, says Sébastien Clerc, CEO of Voltalia.

International development institutions are paying special attention to Africa in recent years, in a drive to ensure deeper reach of renewable energy in the continent. With large swathes of the continent missing a quality national grid in many countries, challenges and opportunities, for distributed renewable energy for instance, abound in the continent today.  The only thing holding back the development is the lack of finance or access to finance.