Solar farms burning bright

IDC’s Bangweulu, Ngonye power companies boosting energy sector

VICTOR KALALANDA, Lusaka

IT LOOKS like a sprawling patch of glass when viewed from the air.

And it looks like a field of granite memorial plaques, in one huge graveyard, when viewed from the ground.

Staggering views, but it’s neither any of those things.

It’s a solar farm.

This photovoltaic power station, Ngonye, which is the smaller one of two greenfield projects by Government’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), is helping create the energy mix that Zambia has long needed to stave off recurrent energy deficits largely occasioned by climate change.

The other one is Bangweulu, and they are both located in the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone, where they were commissioned in 2019 to burn bright for Zambia.

The two solar farms essentially have their origins in 2015, when widespread electrical power shutdowns became more rampant in Zambia due to scanty rainfall and resultant diminished water levels in Lake Kariba, the largest reservoir the country draws upon for hydro-electric power.

As the country’s energy utility, Zesco, started introducing load management schedules, there was looming chaos in the economy in that many businesses ended up either shutting down operations or becoming less productive.

Without shilly-shallying, Government determined that the solution to this problem lay in ending the country’s over-dependence on hydro power, by creating an energy mix through the integration of solar power or photovoltaic systems into the national electricity grid.

The country’s current installed capacity of 2,800 megawatts (MW) had been suffering a weather-induced power deficit of about 600MW.

As Government’s investment arm, accordingly, the IDC was tasked by President Edgar Lungu to seek and forge partnerships for the development of up to 600 megawatts of solar photovoltaic projects as additional sources of energy.

In pursuit of this noble mandate, therefore, the 34MW (peak) Ngonye and 54MW (peak) Bangweulu power companies now stand as IDC’s success stories, models that Zambia’s dream for an energy mix is possible.

Through collaboration, IDC managed to finance and tender the solar projects under the World Bank Group’s Scaling Solar programme, which is a “one-stop shop” for governments to rapidly mobilise competitive privately-funded grid connected solar projects.

IDC and a French power company Neoen thus jointly created what is now known as Bangweulu Power Company Limited at a total cost of US$60 million.

And about US$21 million of the project cost was financed through equity by IDC and its partner Neoen, while the rest was funded by International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private sector financing arm and member of the World Bank Group –and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the United States government’s development finance institution.

On the other hand, Ngonye Power Company was developed by IDC in partnership with Enel Green Power (EGP) of Italy at a total cost of US$40 million, which was financed by IFC and European Investment Bank (EIB), with IDC and EGP providing equity into the project.

IDC and Zambian Sunlight, which is the subsidiary of Neoen, have a shareholding of 20 percent and 80 percent in Bangweulu respectively, just as IDC and EGP have 20 percent and 80 percent shareholding in Ngonye respectively.

In terms of operation, electrical engineer Felix Chama, the Ngonye manager, says of the power plant: “All the power that’s generated under this project (Ngonye) is supplied to Zesco through the sub-station we call Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone. Our source of energy is the sun, so we capture the sun through the solar panels.”

As companies run by Government, the socio-economic impact of these solar firms can be seen through the jobs they help create as part of Zambia’s industrialisation agenda.

Mr Chama, who was trained at the Copperbelt University (CBU) in Kitwe, says: “During construction there were a lot of people that were employed [at Ngonye]. We reached a peak of 900 and these people are not foreigners. These people are Zambians. Of course, now we’re in operation and maintenance. This plant during construction under the policy of Enel employed Zambians to participate in this project during construction and commissioning and the same people, four of them, were picked and they are the ones who are running this project. Besides those who fall under Enel Green Power, we’ve also contractors who we’ve subcontracted who do washing of the [solar] panels and also do the maintenance of the steel structures. They also cut the vegetation and they do other works like mending the wire fence.”

And Joel Mwale, the engineer in charge of Bangweulu, says of the plant: “We’ve colleagues who are experts in matters of finance and we’ve an operations and maintenance team on the plant. The dedicated operations and maintenance team consist of skilled and unskilled labour. The skilled labourers, of course, [we’ve] the plant manager, we’ve a plant engineer and some technicians, and most of the workforce is local. What we’ve done is that there is skills transfer to ensure that locals participate in the running of this [plant]. And I must mention that during construction of the plant, much as the main contractor was from India, a company called Sterling & Wilson, engineers and technicians are local.”

Both Bangweulu and Ngonye each have a separate 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Zesco, at a record low tariff of 6.015 US cents per kilowatt hour for Bangweulu and 7.839 US cents per kilowatt hour tariff for Ngonye.

As alternative sources of power, the two solar power plants stand out because they are relatively cheap and clean, with Ngonye, as an example, avoiding the annual emissions of over 25, 600 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Additionally, the Bangweulu project injects about 100 gigawatts of power annually into the electricity grid, whereas Ngonye, at full capacity, will inject around 70 gigawatt hour per year.

And the IDC Group chief executive officer, Mateyo Kaluba, has observed that “the introduction of solar to the national grid is a substantial reform. Lessons have been learned and necessary steps taken to integrate solar into the country’s energy mix. The rising electricity demand can be met through investments by involving public and private sector participation as evidenced by the solar power plants that IDC is spearheading.”

It is clear that the development and operation of renewables like Bangweulu and Ngonye come at a time when hydro, which has long dominated about 99 percent of Zambia’s energy sector, bears the brunt of climate change.

These two new power plants are now supplying power that Zambians use today and they help kick-start IDC’s series of initiatives aimed at totally diversifying Zambia’s energy generation mix.

As IDC continues to identify cooperating partners and investment opportunities in Zambia’s energy sector, the creation of more solar farms will not only help compensate for the lack of rain that might plague the country in future, but it will also provide jobs for Zambians and enhance industrialisation.