Masdar, the renewable energy company from the United Arab Emirates, is set to embark on a project to construct a 150 MW solar park in the South of Angola, specifically in the municipality of Quipungo in the Huila province. The concession agreement with the strategic company from the UAE was signed today, December 2, on the sidelines of the 28th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change – COP28 – taking place at Expo City Dubai, between His Excellency João Baptista Borges, Minister of Energy and Water of Angola, and Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi.
The project will create up to 600 direct jobs and provide clean electricity to 90,000 households in the region facing significant electricity supply challenges. The agreement signed at COP28 demonstrates the Angolan Government’s commitment to a fair energy transition, economic growth, and carbon emissions reduction in Africa and worldwide. This project will significantly support Angola’s goal of increasing its national electrification rate to over 50% by 2027.
“This contract falls within the scope of the agreement we previously signed, in which we also signed another for the development of Projects and now we are signing a concession contract for the construction of a 150 MW solar park in the South of Angola, more precisely in the Municipality of Quipungo,” said Minister João Baptista Borges to the press. For the Minister of Energy and Water, the project is a private investment and will have a solar capacity that will not only serve the region where it is located, in this case, the Huila Province, but will also allow for capacity to be transmitted to Namibe.
“In this Southern region of the country, there is a significant shortage of energy supply, and where we still use thermal energy, so it will also be the replacement of thermal energy with clean energy,” said His Excellency the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges.
Minister Borges clarified that Masdar will supply energy to the public grid and private consumers, and “the supply will be ensured by the public grid and governed by a power purchase agreement that will be signed shortly between the National Transport Network (RNT) and the Park Operator. The contract signed today is for a concession of 25 to 30 years which allows the park to operate during this time, be operated in such a way that the investor has rights over the land where it will be installed.”
At the opening of COP28, His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the UAE, President of Masdar, and designated President of COP28, said that Africa has everything it takes to become the world’s renewable energy powerhouse.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATION AND PRESS OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND WATER, in Luanda on December 2, 2023.
