Renewvia Energy Corporation and Dream Projects Incubators (DPI) announced a partnership last week to develop solar microgrids in Kenya and Nigeria to connect millions of people in areas living without a reliable and affordable source of power. The two companies have formed a special purpose entity to capitalize large portfolios of solar microgrid projects in sub-Saharan Africa, making them well-positioned to efficiently develop thousands of microgrids across the region.
The first 10 projects are partially capitalized with the French Development Bank and The World Bank. Renewvia’s subsidiaries in Nigeria and Kenya qualified with the World Bank for a performance-based grant for every new connection made in off-grid Nigerian communities and an investment-based grant for Kenya.
“The Development Finance Institutions played a key role in attracting DPI to partner with Renewvia,” said Trey Jarrard, CEO of Renewvia Energy Corporation. “Increasing development velocity equates to exponential increase in value, credibility with key stakeholders, and ultimately, reliable sources of power that enable community empowerment.”
DPI is a development/investment firm focused on utility-scale solar, and off-grid and microgrid renewable energy projects, especially where no electricity access is available. “DPI has been evaluating the off grid sub-Saharan opportunity and felt the most efficient path to take a position is through an established operating platform,” said Kazuomi Kaneto, Founder and CEO of DPI. “Renewvia presented an immediate scalable solar microgrid development opportunity on a continent where there are many millions of people living without power.”