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Rwandese gov't sets up methane power generating project. Alternative Energy Africa. Rwanda adds 25MW from methane gas deal. Business World News of Saturday, 12 December 2015.

Rwanda adds 25MW from methane gas deal

How Africa's fastest solar power project is lighting up Rwanda. “Arise, shine for your light has come,” reads a sign at the entrance to the first major solar power farm in east Africa.

How Africa's fastest solar power project is lighting up Rwanda

The 8.5 megawatt (MW) power plant in Rwanda is designed so that, from a bird’s-eye view, it resembles the shape of the African continent. “Right now we’re in Somalia,” jokes Twaha Twagirimana, the plant supervisor, during a walkabout of the 17-hectare site. The plant is also evidence, not only of renewable energy’s increasing affordability, but how nimble it can be.

The $23.7m (£15.6m) solar field went from contract signing to construction to connection in just a year, defying sceptics of Africa’s ability to realise projects fast. The setting is magnificent amid Rwanda’s famed green hills, within view of Lake Mugesera, 60km east of the capital, Kigali. From dawn till dusk the computer-controlled photovoltaic panels, each 1.9 sq metres, tilt to track the sun from east to west, improving efficiency by 20% compared to stationary panels. The first African large scale methane gas extraction project in Rwanda. The Lake Kivu project will reduce dangerous levels of methane gas and generate electricity for millions Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes that lies on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift.

The first African large scale methane gas extraction project in Rwanda

Lake Kivu has a huge methane gas quantity, stretching over 2,370 kilometers squared (915 miles squared) and plunging to some 485 meters (1,590 feet) deep, the lake Kivu holds some 60 billion cubic meters (2,118 billion cubic feet) of dissolved methane gas, and some 300 billion cubic meters (10,594 billion feet) of carbon dioxide. Rwanda launches east Africa's first utility-scale solar energy project.

The $23.7 million solar energy project at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village.

Rwanda launches east Africa's first utility-scale solar energy project

Photo: Clean Technica East Africa’s first utility-scale solar energy project is now online at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. The completion of Gigawatt Global’s 8.5 gigawatt (GW) solar project has boosted the country’s total grid capacity by 6 percent and represents the first completed project under the Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative. The $23.7 million solar energy project was officially brought online at a ceremony on February 5th attended by Rwanda’s Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. James Musoni, and the Chief of Staff of the US Government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation, John Morton, amongst others. “Top quality developers like Gigawatt Global are the keys to success for President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative,” stated Elizabeth Littlefield, President and CEO of OPIC.

Source: Clean Technica. Rwanda turns on 28MW Nybarongo hydropower plant [video] Rwanda awards 50 MW methane gas to electricity project to Symbion. Scatec Solar to build East Africa's first utility-scale PV plant in Rwanda. Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, where the 8.5MW project will be built.

Scatec Solar to build East Africa's first utility-scale PV plant in Rwanda

Image: ASYV. Norway-based Scatec Solar is to build the first utility-scale PV plant in Rwanda, also said to be the first of its size in East Africa. The company has closed on a US$23.7 million deal to finance the 8.5MW project with Norway’s international development fund, Norfund, and developer Gigawatt Global Coöperatief. Construction is expected to start work immediately, with completion scheduled for this summer. When complete, the plant is expected to increase Rwanda’s total electricity generation capacity by 8% and contribute towards the country’s stated aim of increasing its renewable energy capacity fivefold. Located around 60km from Rwanda’s capital, Kigale, the plant will be built on land belonging to Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV), a residential and educational community for youth orphaned during and after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Rwanda to invest in drilling geothermal wells. New partnership to promote use of renewable energy. Close to 10,000 Congolese refugees have fled to Rwanda in the recent months.

New partnership to promote use of renewable energy

The New Times/File. Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo has warned against “reckless interference by non-state actors in the region,” saying that such conduct can result in human suffering. The warning comes shortly after a UN report, leaked to the BBC, alleged that Rwanda is supporting the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “We will not fall for all these provocations and so-called leaked reports designed to inflame tension and create conflict. Far from it. Minister Mushikiwabo disclosed that the government was aware of a new fundraising effort by Human Rights Watch who are planning to release another “batch of recycled rumours designed to implicate Rwanda”.

“The primary beneficiaries are the FDLR terrorists who feast on insecurity. “The irresponsible words of lobbyists like Human Rights Watch are no less dangerous than bullets or machetes.