Saurimo - Saurimo Photovoltaic Power Plant (Lunda Sul), whose construction works began in 2022, is currently 97 percent completed, the director of the Provincial Department for Infrastructure and Technical Services, Félix Manassa, told ANGOP Wednesday.
The power plant being built in a 65 hectares area by South Africa’s "Sun Africa" and "MCA Angola" has the capacity to produce 26.9 megawatts of clean energy and is expected to be concluded in the first quarter of 2024.
Budgeted at 38.8 million Euros, the project includes a total of 44,850 solar panels that will supply energy to at least 138,000 locals.
Manassa said the project is well advanced and that everything indicates that the deadlines for the completion of the works will be met, underlining that all the solar panels have already been installed to support the project, missing the connection of the medium voltage grid to other existing energy sources (Nhama and Txicumina thermal power stations) and the construction of the control room and support buildings.
With an estimated population of more than 534,000 inhabitants, Saurimo city is currently supplied with a variable 19/24 megawatts of energy by the Nhama and Txicumina thermal power plants.
The photovoltaic plant is part of a programme to build seven solar photovoltaic plants in seven provinces, totaling one million panels.
MINEA said it plans to install solar power stations in eight municipalities and communes of the eastern Lunda Sul province to benefit 246,175 inhabitants, totaling 8,801 household connections. /QB/JW/PPA/AMP
