Gigawatt Global 71 MW Hybrid Wind/Solar Project

Gigawatt Renewables Zambia Limited was incorporated on 30 May 2018, to be the special project company for the establishment of a solar-wind hybrid plant project in Chibombo District. Gigawatt Renewables Ltd is owned 100% by Gigawatt Global Cooperatief U.A., registered in the Netherlands. Gigawatt Global signed a land lease option agreement with Kambwese Farm, a commercial farm currently cultivating wheat and soya crops and cattle ranching. A wind mast was installed on the land in 2017 by the Renewable Energy Resource Mapping (ESMAP) program, led by World Bank Group and its partners. This is the best performing mast in Zambia, with data collected at 80m, and the site, essentially flat and situated at high elevation (1180m), is suitable for solar PV and wind. A solar yield assessment has been performed by DNV GL for the site design. Satelite solar resource data was used with an estimated yearly GHI of 2,184 kWh/m2, and the average yearly temperature on site is 20.8 °C. The solar field will have a capacity of 40 MWp AC, with 48.2 MWp DC installed on east-west orienting trackers. There will be two 33 kV circuits for the wind farm and two for the solar farm. The two wind circuits and the two solar circuits will connect to a 45 MVA transformer each, to step up the voltage from 33 kV to 132 kV at the on-site substation at the south-east corner of the project site. The off-taker for the electricity is the government-owned power utility, ZESCO, which is responsible for electricity distribution, and produces 80% of the electricity in Zambia. The time from financial close (FC) to Commercial Operation Date (COD) for the hybrid plant is expected to be 18 months, including both the wind and solar components together with the grid interconnection. The plant life has been estimated at 25 years. The total estimated cost for the development of the project is $90 million. The project is open for FDI through majority stake.

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