Six companies have been selected to develop renewable energy amounting to 120 mega watts in Zambia. Speaking at the tender winners announcement meeting, Germany Ambassador to Zambia Achim Burkart says the Germany government is excited about the GET FiT Programme and will support it with an initial Investment of 31 million Euros (450 Million Kwacha) through KFW Development Bank.
The ambassador stated that the German Government does not only believe in renewable energy as a key building block for the world’s energy future thriving to achieve the goals set up by the international community against climate change, but that it also believe the GET FiT programme embodies and supports many of the key elements of the power reforms that the government of Zambia is undertaking.
“In line with the energy strategy, GET FiT Zambia will procure 200 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy projects within the next year, this is now the first tender, focusing on solar PV, a resource that exists in abundance in the country,” he added.
And Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary Brig General Emelda Chola says the ministry is implementing the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFiT) strategy that focuses on the development of a total of 100MW Solar PV and 100MW of small hydro power project (up to 20MW per project) through the Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariff (Get FiT) Programme.
Get-Fit is the Zambian Government programme aimed to facilitate private sector investment in small and medium scale Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers – IPP Project in Zambia. The programme is a partnership between the Ministry of Energy and KFW Development Bank, with multiconsult as the programme implementing consultant.
Brig Chola stated that based on the outcome of the evaluation process, the government of Zambia in cooperation with the government of Germany is pleased to announce the award of six (6) Solar PV Independence Power Proceducer (IPP) project, totaling 120 MW to the following developers:
Building Energy and Pele Energy –Bauleni East and West – 20 MW each at US cents 3.999/KWhr, Globeleq and Aurora Power Solution-Aurora Solar One and Two – 20 MW each at USD cents 4.52/KWhr and InnoVent and ACC – Garneton North and South Solar – 20 MW each at USD centd 4.8/KWhr.
“The Solar PV tender, which is round one of the process was a highly competitive tender launched in 2018 resulting in shortlisting of 10 companies and consortium who were invited to submit up to 2 proposals of a maximum of 20MW each.
Out of the 10 companies consortium 8 submitted 15 projects which were are subject to evaluation process including sight visit. Notably, the result did not consider price alone but a total combined technical and financial score,” she said. This is the largest PV tender implementation in Sub-Sahara (SSA) to date outside of South Africa with some of the lowest per kWh prices ever achieved for PV in a Sub-Sahara Market.
The project however is mute on how local businesses and individuals would participate in this solar project. The power is being bought by state owned ZESCO but the IPP’s have no clear provisions on how local businesses would participate or be supported to be equity partners.
