Zambia signs $2bn solar power development pact with UAE
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Zambia signs $2bn solar power development pact with UAE

Zambia signs $2bn solar power development pact with UAE

Construction will be done in phases, starting with the installation of 500 megawatts

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Zambia and the UAE signed a $2bn agreement to build solar plants in the southern African country that will increase its generation base by more than half.

The joint venture between Zambia’s state-owned power utility, Zesco, and a UAE government-owned renewable energy company, Masdar, targets the development of 2,000 megawatts of solar power projects, President Hakainde Hichilema said in a statement on his Facebook page.

Construction will be done in phases, starting with the installation of 500 megawatts, Hichilema said.

“This is not a loan but a capital injection in which the Zambian people, through Zesco, will be partners in shareholding,” he said.

Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, has an installed electricity generation capacity of 3,500 megawatts.

The country is currently suffering rolling blackouts lasting as long as 12 hours a day after water levels in the Kariba Dam — used by the nation and neighboring Zimbabwe to generate hydropower — declined drastically.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Masdar inks agreement to develop solar plant in Turkmenistan

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