- ADF confirms US$5.5m for the flagship renewable energy project in East Africa.
- The project aims to advance the adoption of solar energy technologies in the region.
The African Development Fund (ADF) Board is providing a $5.5 million grant to kick start the flagship Desert to Power initiative in the eastern Sahel region of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Titled the East African Regional African Project, the initiative will be financed via the ADF’s ADF -15 Regional Public Window and will see the development of technical studies for regional solar parks and relevant battery storage as well as electricity connection systems of neighbouring countries.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) comprise governments from the Great Lakes, Nile Valley and Horn of Africa regions. These will serve as the Desert to Power’s implementing agency for which the project will have strengthened technical capacity.
According to Dr Daniel Schroth, Acting Director for AfDB’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department, “the region will move one step closer to harnessing its tremendous solar energy potential to spur accelerated economic and social development.”
The Desert to Power program aims to advance socio-economic development via solar technologies spread across 11 countries in the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. An estimated 10GW will be added to the grid through the program to provide electricity to 250 million people in these countries by 2030.
ADF is the concessional arm of the development finance institute, the African Development Bank (AfDB), with the latter responsible for leading the program.