The Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will soon be home to the country’s very first photovoltaic power plant, with a capacity of 46 megawatts. It is an initiative of the Congolese company Kipay Energy with the aim of reducing the energy deficit in this area where only 1% of the population has access to electricity. Sunday, February 26, the Minister of Energy visited the site located in the town of Fungurume, 200 kilometers from Lubumbashi.
With our correspondent from Fungurume, Denise Mahého
78 tables each carrying 56 solar panels are already mounted on the site of the photovoltaic plant of Fungurume. For now, the panels cover seven hectares. They have a rotating system that works according to the direction of the sun. The electricity produced will be exploited by the network of the national electricity company in order to supply the population.
” The capacity, for the moment, is 2.4 peak in solar plus 1.8 in storage. By injecting electricity into the SNEL network, we mainly affect the population of Fungurume “, explains Éric Monga, the general manager of Kipay Energy.
For his part, the Congolese Minister of Energy, Olivier Mwenze, believes that this type of project must be multiplied to improve Congolese access to electricity:
” What you need to know in the field of energy is that building a hydroelectric plant takes four to five years. So, it is important that we see solutions like this, a photovoltaic plant, which can be implemented quickly to serve at least urban centers and keep hydroelectric plants for the mining sector. »
Started in December 2022, the work of the first phase of this project will end next April. And it is in 2024 that the plant will reach its maximum capacity of 46 megawatts.