Tanzania is getting its first support for renewable energy from the UK government’s development-finance arm, British International Investment Plc.
According to BII CEO Nick O’Donohoe, the company has decided to provide a $15 million seed money to Rift Valley Energy, a division of Meridiam SAS, in order to support the development of 7.6 megawatts of wind and small-scale hydro projects. That amount may rise to $25 million.
According to O’Donohoe, “the new installations will provide power to 170,000 consumers, many of whom had not previously been connected to the grid.”
BII’s investment plans coincide with a plethora of financial institutions competing to offer the capital required to increase Africa’s access to electricity, address climate change, and build infrastructure. The continent’s top multilateral lender, the African Development Bank, projects that the area requires between $130 billion and $170 billion a year in infrastructure development.
According to BII, only 37% of Tanzania’s 66 million inhabitants have access to electricity.
Tanzania’s only wind farm, Mwenga, and a few minor hydroelectric projects are already run by Rift Valley. The company was purchased by Meridiam last year. It is currently working on projects that could produce 30 megawatts of electricity. In addition, Meridiam has invested in 100 megawatts of assets in Kenya, a neighboring country.
