Izuba - GWG Rwanda Project

STAGE

Operating

SIZE

8.5MW, increased Rwanda grid capacity by 6%

LOCATION

Rwamagana, Eastern Province

The solar field in Rwanda, the first utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) field in East Africa, and first in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa, was developed, financed and constructed in record time.

The PV plant, which increased Rwanda’s generation capacity by 6%, is situated 60km from the capital of Kigali, on land owned by the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) for youth orphaned during and after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. ASYV is leasing land to house the solar facility, the fees from which will help pay for a portion of the Village’s charitable expenses. The power is being fed into the national electricity grid under a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Rwanda Energy Group (REG).

Project development was led by Chaim Motzen, co-founder and managing director of Gigawatt Global, and Raffi Mardirosian. The early-stage development of the project was partially funded through grants from the Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) Programme, a partnership of the British, Finnish and Austrian governments and the United States Government via the Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s (OPIC) ACEF (Africa Clean Energy Finance) Grant. Norton Rose Fulbright provided exceptional legal support to the project.

The project successfully reached financial close with an international consortium of equity investors and debt providers including Norfund, KLP Norfund (a vehicle jointly owned by KLP, the largest pension fund in Norway, and Norfund), Scatec Solar, Dutch development bank FMO and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF).

The PV project was completed in record time – it took 12 months from PPA signing to interconnection. It took less than three months from the time the mandate was provided to the lenders to financial close, with all conditions precedent to loan disbursement satisfied within 14 days of signing the financial documents (normally takes months).

This timeline was achieved despite Rwanda having had significant leadership changes in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Energy, the Rwanda Development Board and the Rwanda Energy Group between the start of PPA negotiations and the plant’s achievement of full production.

The project created employment for more than 350 workers, who worked on-site during construction, with around 80% from the local community. They received significant training both in building PV plants and in working with world-class health and safety standards. This training enables them to work on future projects in the region. This project also facilitated training in Europe for engineers from the Rwanda government-owned utility.

▶ Chaim Motzen and Bono discuss the future of Africa’s energy sector

▶ Ribbon Cutting. From Left to Right: Torstein Berntsen, Executive Vice President, Scatec Solar (key equity investor, EPC and O&M); Inge Stolen, Norfund (mezzanine debt provider, key equity investor); Chaim Motzen, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Gigawatt Global; Rwanda Minister of Infrastructure, James Musoni; Governor of Eastern Province of Rwanda, Odette Uwamariya; US Ambassador to Rwanda, Erica J. Barks-Ruggles; Yosef Abramowitz, President and Co-Founder of Gigawatt Global.

▶ Chaim Motzen provides Tony Blair with a history of the project and discusses future collaboration opportunities