Rwanda builds East Africa's largest solar power plant

Last month, South Africa was still the only country in the sub-Saharan Africa to have large-scale solar power plants. Now this situation has changed. Although Ghana had long planned to build a solar energy plant, it was cloudy weather in Rwanda. It has now built a large-scale solar energy plant park to replace the best in solar power generation in West Africa.

The largest solar plant in East Africa was recently built in Rwanda and covers an area of ​​21 hectares. On the surface, Rwanda does not seem to be very suitable for building a solar plant because the average daily sunshine time in the country is less than 5 hours.

The solar power plant is located in the village of Agahozo Shalom in eastern Rwanda and has an installed capacity of 8.5 million watts, which can provide 7% of the country's electricity to Rwanda. The Rwandan government recently signed a 25-year electricity purchase agreement with the plant.

Why is Rwanda able to win the top spot in the competition for building solar plants in East African countries? In an interview, Dan Klinck, owner and chief operating officer of the plant, stated that there are several reasons for the successful establishment of factories in Rwanda.

The first is the construction side's consideration for safety. Lu Wanda's domestic politics is the most stable in the region and is arguably the most attractive place for investment. Moreover, the political system in Rwanda is open and transparent and there are no signs of violence. Investing here can ensure a return. At present, the government and the plant's purchase agreement price is kept confidential, but according to VOA, the price is between 20-25 cents per kilowatt, which is about twice the price of hydroelectric power.

Nearly 50% of Rwanda’s electricity supply comes from diesel fuel, and the cost of obtaining electricity through diesel in Rwanda is about 38 cents per kilowatt.

However, due to the volatility of solar power supply, Rwanda does not want the proportion of solar power supply to be too high. Although we do not want solar power to account for more than 10%, if the solar power ratio reaches 10%, it will save a lot of diesel consumption. Therefore, developing solar energy industry is a good choice for Rwanda.

“Generally speaking, a hydropower plant will take two years to build, and building a solar plant can save a lot of time. As you can see, we only spent six months to build and put it into use,” he said.

According to reports, the villagers who previously worked in the construction area of ​​the plant area were very satisfied with the compensation they received and hoped that they could use the power supplied by the plant. However, most of Rwanda’s rural areas are estimated to have waited several years before they can use solar power.

In fact, 80% of Rwandan families can pay for the electricity supply price. Electricity costs are not a problem. The problem lies mainly in the power supply problems caused by the defects of the solar panels themselves. The solar panels need sunlight to operate, and the temperature they receive during work cannot be too high. Otherwise, the performance of the solar panels will be reduced, the power supply efficiency will be reduced, and eventually the solar power supply system will be unstable. On the whole, it is not easy to achieve solar energy for all citizens in Rwanda, and there is still a long way to go. It is reported that the total number of solar panels in the plant exceeds 28,000, and the cost for constructing the plant is 23.7 million US dollars.