Norfund is selling its shares in two solar plants in Africa. The combined capacity is 48.5 MW. The solar plant in Rwanda is being sold to the American company Fortis Green Fund I, Rwanda Holdings Ltd, and Axian Energy Green Ltd. The solar plant in Mozambique is being sold to Globeleq, a company owned by Norfund (30%) and British International Investment (70%). Scatec recently sold its shares in both plants as well.
“This sale releases capital that we will re-invest where it can create the most impact in terms of fighting poverty and avoiding emissions,” said Mark Davis, EVP for Renewable Energy in Norfund.
The solar plant in Rwanda, the country’s biggest, was officially opened by then prime minister of Norway Erna Solberg in the summer of 2015. It was the first bigger commercial solar plant in East Africa, an important contribution in a country where diesel played a central part of the energy mix for the 15 percent of the population with access to electricity at the time.
The plant in Mozambique was the first large solar power plant in the country when it opened in 2016. As in Rwanda, the Norwegian actors KLP, Scatec and Norfund collaborated. With the production of approximately 75GWh a year the facility generates electricity equal to the demand of 170.000 households annually.
“We are proud to have played a role in making it possible to build these solar plants in South- and East Africa, that have each paved the way and given important experiences for the development of other projects in the region, both for us and others,” Davis added.