Masdar, an Abu Dhabi-based renewables developer, has switched on a 5 MW solar plant in the Seychelles. The Ile de Romainville project includes 3.3 MW of battery energy storage and a 33 kV system to transmit electricity to the main island of Mahe.
The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) financed the project, which was jointly developed by Masdar and Seychelles-based Public Utilities Corp. (PUC). It is part of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and ADFD Project Facility, which is an initiative to scale up renewables in developing countries. It is only the second clean-energy project in the Seychelles, according to Masdar.
Masdar built the solar plant on the island of Romainville, which hosts several wind turbines from ADFD and Masdar’s Port Victoria Wind Farm. It specifically designed the PV installation to maximize the use of available land, while allowing for the maintenance of the wind turbines and minimizing shading losses, Masdar said in a statement.
“By saving about 2,000,000 liters of fossil fuel annually, Ile de Romainville solar PV plant will enable the country to significantly reduce its carbon footprint, provide a wide range of benefits to its people and empower small businesses,” said ADFD Director General Mohamed Saif Al Suwaidi. “The project will also make energy more affordable and accessible to the population.”
The Seychelles heavily relies on fossil fuels to meet its electricity demand, with fossil fuels accounting for around 20% of the country’s imports. It has set a target of 15% renewables by 2030. According to IRENA, the nation's cumulative solar capacity stood at 9 MW in 2021.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
2 comments
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.