The International Finance Corporation (IFC) private-sector arm of the World Bank says it will supply the last-mile funding needed to get a 100 MWac solar project up and running in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The IFC announced on its website on November 25, it will provide “up to” $900,000 through a financing program for the PV project planned at Kolwezi, in the Katanga region in the southeast of the country. “Up to” a further $900,000 will be available to the project via the development lender's Finland-IFC Blended Finance for Climate Program, which was established in 2017-18 with a €114 million ($128 million) contribution from the Finnish government.
pv magazine December
Although the nature of the finance is not specified on the IFC website, the capital is likely to be made available on a loan, rather than grant basis.
The Kolwezi solar farm – which the IFC said will sell electricity to national utility Société Nationale d'Électricité and will “support mining operations and economic activity in the region” – has been under development by Johannesburg-based energy investor Consolidated Infrastructure Group's CIGenCo unit; South African clean energy products company Greenshare Energy, and its Greenshare Congo operation; Cape Town-headquartered business Volt Renewables; and Johannesburg-based Nzuri Energy.
The IFC said it had come on board to help the project towards development, along with the Globeleq entity 70% owned by the U.K. government's newly-rebranded British International Investment body and 30% owned by Norwegian state-backed development organization Norfund.
The IFC did not state whether Globeleq will make a funding commitment to the Kolwezi facility, which is set to begin construction in 2023 and which it is anticipated will take a maximum 12 months to complete.
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