ATI backs $67m Nkhotakota solar project in Malawi
The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) is supporting a $67 million solar plant in Malawi.
The Nkhotakota Solar Power Plant, one of Malawi’s first commercial scale independent solar power projects, is expected to add 37MWac of clean energy to the national capacity, currently estimated at 362MWac.
The solar plant, which is being developed in two phases of 21MWac and 16 MWac, is the second renewable energy project to be backed by ATI Regional Liquidity Support Facility. ATI, through the RLSF, is providing liquidity cover for a tenor of up to ten years. The completed project will supply electricity for up to 150,000 Malawian households.
The Nkhotakota Solar Power Plant is part of the Malawian government’s plan to move the country from its reliance on hydropower, which currently represents over 90% of its energy mix.
The project stems from Malawi’s first competitive tender in the power sector leading to a 20-year power purchase agreement signed between the Project Company and Malawi’s national utility, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited, in February 2019.
The international consortium behind the project consists of two project developers, Kenya-based responsAbility Renewable Energy Holding, the primary equity partner providing equity financing and UAE-based Phanes Group.
The two developers are working with the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which is contributing debt financing, and Natsons which is the local development partner.
