FG, investors sign pacts for 1,125mw solar plants
The acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), Mr Waziri Bintube, has said that 14 investors are working to generate 1,125megawatts (mw) electricity from solar technology.
The project, he said, was worth $1.75billion (about N521.9billion) and expected to produce power in 2017.
Waziri said this yesterday in Abuja when he signed the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the contractors of the projects spread in 10 states.
Bintube gave reasons for citing 13 of the plants in the North, saying that solar energy generation was highest in Northern Nigeria.
He said: “The PPAs after initialing were sent to the regulatory agencies for approval. The necessary approvals have been obtained and we are here today to formally sign the PPAs.”
He said that the bankable PPAs would help developers source for fund and start construction in a few months, adding that the solar projects would cushion effects of outage caused by gas pipelines vandalism.
In his address, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, charged the developers to focus on the durability the projects, saying that many projects were done shoddily in the past.
He said that the investors have agreed on 11.5 per cent for the solar feed-in tariff which is about N23 per kilowatt hour (kwh) within the level of the present 2015 Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO).
“It is the policy of government to diversify the energy mix to include solar and wind,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the developers, Managing Director of Pan Africa Solar, Marcus Heal, said: “Our plan is to supply electricity to millions of Nigerians by developing large scale solar technology. The investment of $1.75bn is the largest on solar so far in the country, most of them are bound to come on stream from 2017.”
The plants, when completed, would generate 1,025mw of electricity in eight northern states comprising Katsina, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Kogi, Jigawa, Plateau and Kaduna and the FCT.
An additional 100mw would be generated from a plant in Enugu State.