Dubai-based international solar developer Phanes Group has acquired and will co-develop three 100MW grid-operated PV projects in Nigeria.
The ground-mounted projects will boost Nigeria’s current solar capacity and play a key role in the Nigerian government’s goals to generate 2000MW of power from renewable sources by 2020.
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The projects are located in three areas, including the Mando area of Kaduna, Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi and Sokoto in northwest Nigeria. The latter – in Sokoto – benefits from one of the highest irradiation levels (2210 kWh/m2/year) in the country and is assisted by one of the 14 recently signed power purchase agreements (PPA) with utility-scale solar power developers – which will collectively add around 1,200 MW of solar capacity to the grid.
The first 50MW of the Sokoto project will be grid-connected as early as the first quarter of 2018, with the project expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The Kebbi and Kaduna projects will be delivered under the Hasken-Rana brand – a joint venture between Phanes Group and its Nigerian partners — and are expected to be completed before the end of 2019.
Martin Haupts, chief executive officer of Phanes Group, said: “Nigeria’s policy makers have worked proactively to address the nation’s immediate and long term electrification challenges through the introduction of attractive clean energy policies, and we are beginning to see the fruits of those policies.
Haupts added: “Despite its challenges, Nigeria’s potential for solar development is unquestionable and from a standing start it may soon emerge as solar leader among its sub-Saharan African peers. These new commercially viable projects demonstrate the strength of public, private partnerships whilst setting Nigeria on positive to course greater energy security and economic development – a model for African solar deployment.”
The projects will be managed and delivered from Phanes Group’s new Nigerian office, which is expected to be operational from the end of this year and will service the firm’s broader West African solar interests.
Andrea Haupts, chief operating officer of Phanes Group, added: “We are wholly committed to realizing Africa’s solar potential which also means identifying ways of utilizing our off-grid and micro-grid expertise to light up remote communities too. In parallel with our utility scale grid-connected work we will pursue and deploy solar to Nigeria’s rural communities where citizens are being held back by a lack of electrification – helping to transform the lives of millions of Nigerians.”
