Mozambique: Deadline for Metoro solar power station extended

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Mozambique: Deadline for Metoro solar power station extended

8:22 CAT | 10 Aug 2021

in file CoM

The deadline for concluding the Metoro solar power station in Ancuabe district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, has been extended to January 2022.

Cited by Radio Mozambique, Dinis Vilaculos, the representative of Neoen, the French company specialising in renewable sources of electricity, which is the partner of the Mozambican electricity company EDM, said that initially the work was scheduled to end this month.

But it is behind schedule, and is only 68 per cent complete. Vilanculos blamed the delay on “the current adversities that the province s facing” – a reference to the islamist terrorists operating in several Cabo Delgado districts (although Ancuabe is not one of them).

President Filipe Nyusi laid the first stone for construction of the new power station on 23 October last year.

Covering an area of 138 hectares, this will be the second largest solar power station in Mozambique to date. It will generate 41 peak megawatts of power, which will be injected into the national grid operated by EDM.

The station is budgeted at 56 million US dollars, of which 40 million is a loan from the French Development Agency (AFD) and its subsidiary, Proparco, which claims to finance businesses “that are instrumental in creating decent jobs that pay decent wages, in supplying essential goods and services and in battling climate change”.

Neoen is the main shareholder, owning 75 per cent of the station. The remaining 25 per cent is owned by EDM.

When it comes on stream, the Metoro power station will produce 68 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year, which is equivalent to 75 per cent of the needs of Pemba city. It will support industrial activities in the region, including the graphite mines in the districts of Ancuabe and Balama.

Source: AIM