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Amea Power is still growing throughout Africa. The Malawian government has just given the independent power producer (IPP) with headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the go-ahead to invest in solar photovoltaic energy. The framework agreement was recently signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on the sidelines of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27).

Amea Power will invest in a 50 MWp solar facility as per the deal. There isn’t a lot of information available about this ongoing project. When the final investment choice is made, perhaps more information will become available. In any event, Malawi is relying on renewable energy for its development and will profit from this investment. Power Africa reports that this nation in East Africa has a capacity of 532 MW, obtained largely through hydroelectric installations.

Malawi wants to diversify its electricity mix by investing in the production of solar photovoltaic energy. The country already has two such plants that have been commissioned in the last two years. The largest is located in Salima and has a capacity of 60 MWp, making it one of the largest operational solar power plants in East Africa.

The other solar plant is located in Golomoti. The park has a capacity of 20 MWp and a storage system of 5 MW/10 MW. Both facilities were built under public-private partnerships (PPPs) involving the state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and a consortium of Canadian independent power producer JCM Power (JCM) and InfraCo Africa, an investment company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG).

 

Pirmak Zwanbun

Pirmak is a senior researcher at the African Energy Institute. He has 10 years of experience across the energy verticals of power, hydrogen, oil, gas, LNG and renewable energy.