Mocuba Solar Power Station


Mocuba Solar Power Station, is an operational 40 megawatt solar power plant in Mozambique. The public–private partnership project, sells the energy produced to the national electric utility, Electricidade de Moçambique, under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Location

The power station sits on of land with the solar panels occupying. The development is located in the municipality of Mocuba, in Zambezia Province, in the central coastal region of Mozambique. This is approximately, north of the city of Quelimane, where the provincial headquarters are located. Mocuba is located about, by road, northeast of Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. The geographical coordinates of Mocuba Solar Power Station are: 16°49'22.0"S, 37°02'05.0"E.

Overview

The power station was developed by a consortium, the Mocuba Solar Energy Consortium, comprising Scatec Solar, a Norwegian independent solar power producer the Mozambican electricity utility company Electricidade de Moçambique and KLP Norfund Investments, a subsidiary of Norfund. The power station produces 40 megawatts of electricity, which EDM will purchase for 25 years from the date of commissioning, according to an agreement signed between the owners of the power station and the Government of Mozambique.

Ownership

Mocuba Solar Power Station is owned by the entity that developed it, Mocuba Solar Energy Consortium. The table below illustrates the shareholding within the consortium:
RankName of OwnerDomicilePercentage Ownership
1Scatec SolarNorway52.5
2Electricidade de MozambiqueMozambique25.0
3KLP Norfund InvestmentsNorway22.5
Total100.00

Timeline

Construction began in June 2018 and was completed in July 2019. Commercial commissioning was effected in August 2019.

Financing

The funds used to construct this power station, whose cost price is reported as US$76 million, were borrowed from the World Bank Group and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund.

Other considerations

During the construction phase, this project created 1,209 jobs, with 1,052 of them being local. The solar power plant is expected to save the country approximately 79,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.