A 30 MW solar power plant with a 15 MW/30 MWh battery backup system in Africa's Eritrea has secured $49.92 million grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help increase the African country's grid connected power generation capacity and bring down its power deficit.
"Eritrea experiences inadequate, unreliable, expensive and polluting electricity supply. The available capacity is 35 MW for a peak demand of about 70 MW. Consequently, frequent load-shedding periods affect businesses and the population," AfDB explained.
According to the bank the solar and storage project is expected to 'contribute to increasing generation capacity and grid energy to 185 MW and 365 GWh/year, respectively'. Dekemhare project is estimated to increase the share of renewable energy in the national mix from 3% to 23%.
Capital raised will be deployed to construct, install and grid connect the project near the town of Dekemhare. It is aimed at bringing down the country's carbon emissions and reducing the cost of electricity generation to $0.185/kWh along with its dependence on fossil fuels.
The financing comprises $19.5 million from the bank and $30.42 million from the Transition Support Facility (TSF) which will be provided to the Ministry of Energy and Mines that is responsible for its implementation.
Part of the grant will also be allocated to technical assistance and capacity building to improve the operational performance of the grid.
Earlier this year, Eritrea was looking for a consultant to assist with bidding process for the 30 MW Dekemhare PV and storage project (see 30 MW Solar PV Power Plant Coming Up In Africa's Eritrea).
Recently, AfDB also approved $28.49 million grant to support the construction of mini-grids, standalone solar PV systems and solar based battery facilities in Ghana.
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