Gigawatt Global, an American-owned Dutch solar developer, announced the ground breaking of a 7.5 MW solar field, a $14 million pioneering project in Mubuga, 100 km outside the Burundian capital of Bujumbura.
“Empowering economic and social development is at the heart of our green energy business,” said Michael Fichtenberg, VP for Finance and Business Development of Gigawatt Global . “This high impact development investment supported by leading international financial institutions signals that Burundi is open for development and business.”
This will be the largest private international investment in the power sector in Burundi in nearly 30 years, with the power being sold for 25 years to REGIDESO, the national electric company.
“We are very excited at the groundbreaking of the Gigawatt Burundi solar field,” said Come Manirakiza, Burundi’s Minister of Energy and Mines. “After their success in Rwanda, Gigawatt Global has proven it can be relied on to deliver efficient, clean renewable energy at reasonable cost, contributing greatly to our economy and society.”
Gigawatt Global is a founding member of the White House Power Africa initiative and financed and developed the first commercial scale solar field in continental sub-Sahara Africa (outside of South Africa) in neighboring Rwanda in 2014.
The project has been supported by a grant from the Energy and Environment Partnership (a Finland, UK, Austrian fund) and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing countries (BIO) to cover the relevant studies. The project is also supported by African-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP) and the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP), currently engaging in project due diligence.
The construction and interconnection of the project to the national grid is expected to be concluded in Q4 of 2017.
Rajani Baburajan