- The Emirati independent power producer (IPP) Masdar is commissioning a 5 MWp solar photovoltaic power plant in Romainville.
- The park is connected to a battery-based electricity storage system.
The Seychelles archipelago recently commissioned a commercial solar power plant. The solar power plant was commissioned in the presence of the Seychelles authorities, including Ahmed Afif, the Vice President of the Republic, and Flavien Joubert, the Minister of Agriculture, Climate Change and Energy. The park is located on Romainville Island, 2 km from Victoria, the capital of Seychelles.
The 5 MWp plants were developed and built in a partnership between Masdar, a company based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Seychelles’ electricity utility. The park is connected to a 3.3 MWh battery storage system installed on Mahé, the island that houses Victoria’s capital.
A financial firm in the UAE claims that the solar power facility can offset 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2) in annual emissions. Seychelles now produces a large amount of its electricity from fossil fuels. These environmentally harmful energies make up 20% of the imports into this archipelago off the coast of East Africa.
However, the government of Seychelles has set a goal to increase the proportion of renewable energy from 5% in 2020 to 15% in 2030. Since the nation is an archipelago of 115 islands, it must make do with tiny electrical grids. These sunny islands are ideal for solar energy. As part of the Seychelles government’s energy policy, a 4 MWp floating solar power plant has also been installed in Providence lagoon on the outskirts of the main island of Mahé. The plant is operated by the French company Qatar.