Dubai-based international solar developer’s 100 MW Sokoto project builds on Nigeria’s recently signed PPA initiative
Phanes Group, the international solar energy developer, investment manager and asset manager headquartered in Dubai, has acquired and will co-develop three 100 MW grid-connected solar PV plants in Nigeria. The ground-mounted projects will significantly raise Nigeria’s current solar capacity and contribute to the Nigerian government’s ambitions to generate 2000 MW of power from renewable sources by 2020.
The projects span three locations, including the Mando area of Kaduna, Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi and Sokoto in the North-West of Nigeria. The latter, in Sokoto, benefits from one of the highest irradiation levels, 2210 kWh/m2/year, in the country and is backed by one of the 14 recently signed government 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 50 MW of Phanes Group’s Sokoto project will be grid-connected as early as the first quarter of 2018, and the project is expected to be complete 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 due for completion before the end of 2019.
“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,” said Martin Haupts, Chief Executive Officer of Phanes Group.
“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,” continued Mr. Haupts. “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. This follows the opening of the company’s African’s headquarters in South Africa, earlier this year.
