Bwengu Solar Power Station
The Bwengu Solar Power Station is a 50 megawatt solar power plant, under construction in Bwengu in northern Malawi. The power station is under development by a consortium led by Quantel Renewable Energy, an independent power producer, based in the United States. Construction began in February 2022. An additional $10m was invested by a Sri Lankan company in 2023. The energy generated at this solar farm was expected to be sold to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, under a long-term power purchase agreement.
Location
The power station was under construction on, in the community of Ulalo Nyirenda, in the town of Bwengu, in the Mzimba District, in Malawi's Northern Region.Bwengu is located approximately by road northeast of Mzimba, the location of the district headquarters. This is about, by road, northwest of the city of Mzuzu, the regional headquarters. Bwengu lies approximately, by road, north of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi.
Overview
The design of the solar farm calls for a generation capacity of 50 megawatts. The power generated here will be evacuated to an ESCOM substation, less than from the solar farm, where it will be intergraded into the national grid. The off-taker will be Power Market Limited, the sole national bulk electricity transmitter and a component of ESCOM.Developers
The consortium that owns and is developing this power station, comprises three entities as listed in the table below. The owners are expected to form a special purpose vehicle company to develop, finance, build, own, operate and maintain the power station. For descriptive purposes, the SPV company is referred to here as Bwengu Solar Consortium.| Rank | IPP/developer | Domicile | Notes |
| 1 | Quantel Renewable Energy | United States | |
| 2 | Frontier Energy | Denmark | |
| 3 | Vidullanka Plc | Sri Lanka |