A grant of US$49.92 million has been authorized by the Transition Support Facility (TSF) and the African Development Fund (ADF-15) for the development of a 30-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in Eritrea. The Dekemhare 30-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant project intends to improve socioeconomic growth by increasing the nation’s grid energy to 365 gigawatt-hours annually.
The project includes the design, construction, supply, and installation of a 30 MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic power plant with a 15 MW/30 MWh battery energy storage system, a 33/66 kV substation, and a 66 kV transmission line connected to the existing transmission line between East Asmara and Dekemhare, located about 1 km from the project site. The second component of the project includes technical assistance and capacity building to support large-scale renewable energy projects and improve the operational performance of the grid.
Eritrea experiences an inadequate, unreliable, expensive, and polluting electricity supply. The project aligns with the 2018 National Energy Policy and Eritrea’s Vision 2030, which aim to increase the electrification rate and supply 20% of electric power demand through renewable energy sources. The project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42,910 Gg CO2-eq per year and increase the share of renewable energy in the grid’s energy mix from 3% to 23%.
The award is being administered by the Eritrean government’s Ministry of Energy and Mines. The project will provide temporary jobs during project implementation and long-term jobs following project completion, resulting in enhanced economic prospects and job development.
The project complements the Bank’s Desert to Power initiative, which aims to provide renewable energy via solar to 250 million people in eleven nations across the Sahel and East Africa, making it the world’s largest solar zone.
