Kenya saw the continent’s largest carport PV system completed and connected to the grid. The carport is located at a newly opened $540-million flagship business complex in Nairobi.
The 858-kWp plant is on the top storey of a car park at Garden City Mall, part of an integrated residential, retail and office development. The rooftop solar facility was inaugurated with a launch ceremony attended by the principal secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Joseph K Njoroge.
The complex’s main investor, Actis, selected the Solarcentury-SolarAfrica project confident that it will pay for itself through electricity costs saved, with the estimated 1,256-MWh per year of electricity generated by the carport arrays expected to be consumed onsite. It will power lights and escalators and other infrastructure and fittings at the mall. Carports have been the favored installation type at some commercial projects as they take advantage of otherwise unused real estate space and provide shading for parked vehicles.
Solarcentury out of the UK developed the PV system in conjunction with the SolarAfrica Platform, which was put together by renewable energy developer and investor NVI Energy to work on commercial scale projects in the continent.