Oando Clean Energy has signed an agreement with REA for a 1.2 GW solar PV module assembly plant
The facility will also involve building a recycling line, which will make it the 1st factory in Africa to host such a project
It will be backed by the DARES project, which is being supported by the World Bank and JICA
Nigerian solar energy company Oando Clean Energy will build a 1.2 GW solar PV module assembly plant in the country under an agreement with Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
It will also comprise an off-grid power plant, mesh electricity generation, and an interconnected power grid. The initial 600 MW line will be online in 2026 to supply solar panels to the local Nigerian market and other African countries as well.
“It will also be the first, on the African continent, solar modular assembly plant with a recycling line,” said Oando Clean Energy President/CEO Ademola Ogunbanjo. “So, we’re building a solar modular assembly plant in Nigeria that will not only roll out solar panels, but also be able to take solar panels that are no longer working, maybe due to age or dysfunction, and recycle them into raw materials that we can then send back to those who use them for different purposes.”
The project will be funded by the REA under the $950 million Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project, backed by the World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The DARES project aims to bring electricity to more than 17 million denizens in Nigeria.
The Managing Director of REA, Abubaker Abba Aliyu, said that the agency is in talks to sign a joint development agreement with Infracorp and the Ministry of Finance for another 1 GW solar PV panel assembly plant in Nigeria (see GW-Scale Solar Module Manufacturing In Nigeria).
A lithium battery assembly plant in Lagos’ Free Trade Zone by Greenbox is also in the pipeline.
“This is something that we are doing to make sure that we domesticate localisation and manufacturing in-country,” added Aliyu.
The government-owned National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) operates a 21 MW solar PV module production factory in the country and had revealed plans to build a cell factory in cooperation with China’s CGWIC in March 2023 (see 1st Solar Cell Production Factory In West Africa).