Angola’s first utility-scale solar plant is now generating power in more than 10 provinces and the country has six more plants and dozens of mini-grids planned to expand access to clean energy.
According to a report by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, Biópio Photovoltaic Center comprises more than 500,000 solar panels arrayed across 360 hectares in the western province of Benguela, generating around 145 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity. Nearly a million people benefit from the project, which launched in October 2022 as part of the central region’s 220-kilovolt network. Developed by a consortium of Angolan, Portuguese and American companies, it is now wholly owned and operated by the Angolan Ministry of Energy and Water.
Nilton de Carvalho, director of the facility, told Lusa that he expects “all this energy from the central region” will be connected to the networks in the south and east in the future. “It is a line that can [benefit] the entire country,” he stressed.
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Biópio Photovoltaic Center is part of a larger project built by US-based multinational Sun Africa in collaboration with the Angolan Ministry of Energy and Water and financed by SEK, a Swedish export credit agency, to the tune of around US$500 million. The seven plants, once completed, will have a capacity of 370 MW.
Sun Africa representative Eguinilson da Silva, speaking at a Lobito Corridor conference last Wednesday, said that the company had also been asked to “develop mini-grids in localities in the country that are not yet interconnected to the national system, in order to meet the needs more quickly.”
According to da Silva, this project is close to the execution phase, with recently approved financing of US$1.6 billion from the US EximBank for the installation of some 65 mini-grids in southern Angola totalling 220 MW. Sun Africa, which has been in Angola since 2018, already has projects in the western provinces of Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul and Moxico.
