Africa
Sterling and Wilson to Build Zambias Largest Solar Plant
By PH, Bim er, 1/2/18
Feb 12, 2018 - 9:13:25 AM

Sterling and Wilson, global solar company has been chosen to construct Zambia’s largest solar plant, of capacity 54.3 Megawatt peak.

It is the first project to be implemented in the frame of the Scaling Solar program, promoted by the International Finance Corporation – a member of the World Bank Group. The project is being developed by Neoen, the French developer and Independent Power Producer (IPP).

In the year 2015, Zambia’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) signed an agreement with IFC to develop two large-scale solar projects through Scaling Solar program. This will be Zambia’s first utility scale solar PV project and first under Scaling Solar Program exclusively for on grid application.

Situated at 20 km South East of Lusaka, in Kafue district, the project site has spread across 52 hectares of land.

Bikesh Ogra, President and CEO – Renewable Energy and Energy Storage business, Sterling and Wilson said, “Sterling and Wilson is a key player in Africa region. We have commissioned 90 MWp Solar PV plant in Africa till date. Zambia is one of the key markets for us considering the booming renewable energy segment and the Zambian government’s support for the development of 500 MW of new Solar PV plant in next couple of years. Zambia regularly suffers from power outages that lasts for more than 10 hours a day. Reports suggest one in five people living in the country currently has no access to electricity, a basic need today. We are glad to be chosen by Neoen for this project and are privileged to be part of the energy revolution in a power deficit market.”

Sterling and Wilson was ranked as the world’s largest pure play solar EPC company (outside USA and China) by IHSMarkit in Q1 2017. The company has to its credit more than 2000 MW of best performing solar power plants across the world in various geographies including Asia & Africa. Currently it is constructing the world’s largest single location Solar PV plant of 1177 MWp in Abu Dhabi.