BURUNDI PLANS HYDRO, SOLAR POWER PROJECTS

Burundi has announced it will start construction of the $60 million Kagu hydroelectric power station, which will add 12MW to the national grid.

The plant will be constructed at Cibitote, about five kilometres from the capital Bujumbura, under a public and private partnership arrangement. Burundi is ranked among African countries with the lowest electricity per capita.

Energy and Mines Minister Côme Manirakiza said the annual energy yield of the hydroelectric power plant would be equivalent to 80 to 90 per cent production of the Rwegura facility located on Kagunzi River.

He said the European Investment Bank, World Bank, European Union, African Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, China and Netherlands are supporting the building of the Kagu power plant on the Kagunzi River, which is expected to take 2.5-3 years.

Burundi experiences an average downtime in electricity of two days a week. The country’s total installed power capacity is 52 Megawatts, including 15.5 MW of diesel-generated power.

Gigawatt Global (GWG) also plans to develop and manage a 7.5MW solar panel field on 15 hectares at Mubuga in Gitega region. The company recently launched a 8.5MW solar installation in Rwanda.

The total cost of the renewable energy project is estimated to be about $20 million. The solar field will increase Burundi’s generation capacity by 15 per cent.

The Mubuga solar project is being supported by two grants totalling about $1 million from Power Africa through the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and the Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) — a coalition representing the British, Finnish, and Austrian governments.

USTDA’s director Leocadia Zak said the agency had provided a feasibility study grant to Gigawatt Global Burundi SA for the Mubuga solar power project.

“This support is part of Power Africa’s objectives of increasing access to power and promoting greater private investment in Africa’s energy sector,” she said. EEP’s grant will fund pre-development works and legal costs.

Burundi is embracing the development of renewable energy as a means of increasing electricity generation in the country.

Gigawatt Global’s vice president of finance Michael Fichtenberg said GWG is working closely with the government and the US and Dutch embassies in developing the country’s first solar energy generation plant.

The East African