TheGovernment of Rwanda has set an ambitious targets to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by 2035 one of the drivers of Sustainable Economic Development is the availability of sustainable and Reliable Energy for all.
Different programs and initiatives have been developed to scale up electricity access using on-grid and off-grid solutions.
As a result, on grid connections have increased in Q3 of FY 2017-18 to 33% of Rwandan Households from 22% in June 2015 while off grid access is at 11% from a measly 1% in June 2015.
The national electricity grid has been extended by 335.3Km of HV lines and 2,617 km of distribution lines (MV&LV) across the country and others are on-going to further strengthen the grid and reach all corners of the country.
Nyabarongo power plant
Nyabarongo Power plant is located in Muhanga District on the River Nyabarongo.
The project’s construction cost, is estimated at nearly $100 million and was partly raised through a loan from India’s Exim Bank of $80-million to be repaid in 20 years. It was constructed by an Indian group,
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd,(BHEL) and local company called Angelique Int. Ltd.
Gas in Lake Kivu
In 2016, an American energy Company Contour Global inaugurated the first phase of KivuWatt, a $200 million facility that is the only industrial scale plant of its kind in the world. It draws up water from an offshore barge, siphons off the methane, and pipes it to a 26MW power plant on shore. Aside from providing critically needed power, Kivu-Watt and other projects in pipeline are conceived to mitigate potential catastrophe of CO2 and CH4 explosion.
Measurements taken in the mid-2000s showed the lake’s methane rising at a rate that could cause Kivu’s overall gas concentration to approach saturation by the end of the century.
Gisagara peat plant
Rwanda has launched construction works for a $350 million peat energy plant expected to generate 80MW of electricity.
This Power plant is located in Gisagara district, Southern Province of Rwanda is being constructed by Quantum Power a Turkish company and is expected to be ready by December 2020.
Rwanda has a similar plant in operation Gishoma peat to power plant in Rusizi district generating 15MW..
Rwanda Gigawatt solar Project
The facility contributes to 4% of the country’s Generation Mix with 28,360 panels spread across 17 hectares and can be monitored from anywhere in the world.
The facility cost is estimated at $23.7 million and was financed by an international consortium of partners including the FMO, a Dutch development bank, Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, Norfund, Scatec Solar and KLP.
The project was also sup-ported by Power Africa, U.S. president Barack Obama’s initiative to increase access to electricity on the continent.