State-owned energy conglomerate China Energy Engineering Corp Ltd has announced plans to develop 500 MW of solar generation capacity in Uganda.
In an announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, China Energy said it had signed a $500 million framework agreement to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the projected capacity.
China Energy did not reveal the counterparty to the contract or any further details about where the solar capacity would be based or when it was expected to be operational.
The company stated the project capacity would be developed in two phases by its China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co Ltd subsidiary.
pv magazine reported in October 2018 the government of Uganda intended to expand its total power generation capacity from 947 MW of mostly hydro and thermal facilities to 1.5 GW by this year. At that point, it was estimated only 22% of Ugandans had access to electricity.
Small, off-grid residential systems provide the backbone of Ugandan solar capacity and domestic installer SolarNow in January 2019 announced it had raised $9 million to fund the roll-out of a further 2.5 MW of such solar home systems.