Husk Minigrids

pending

The proposed IFC investment consists of a revolving loan of up to USD 5m to Husk Power Energy Systems Nigeria Limited (“Husk Nigeria” or the Company), a subsidiary of Husk Power Systems (HPS) Inc. The proceeds will be used to part finance a 3-year capex plan to construct and operate ~300 mini-grids with an aim to connect 50,000+ off-grid consumers by 2027. Each mini-grid will consist of a 50kWp solar-hybrid system with a 180kWh lead acid battery storage component, a 60kVA genset and a small local low voltage Transmission and Distribution (T&D) network without transformers (the “Project”). The loan shall be secured entirely through an assignment of amounts due to Husk Nigeria under the World Bank (WB) financed Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (“DARES”) project (P179687). The DARES project builds on the achievements of the WB financed Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), which has supported the establishment of 125 mini-grids and the sale of over a million Solar Home Systems, through which more than 5.5 million Nigerians have gained access to electricity. The mini-grids will mostly be in villages, on small plots of land of ~ 0.25ha, leased from communities or households for a 25-year period. The construction period of each mini-grid system is around 4 weeks and construction, and operation and maintenance (O&M) will be managed in-house by the Company. To date, the Company has installed 30 mini-grids in a couple of states including Nasarawa state. and is in the process of identifying sites across several other states including Plateau, Kwara, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, and Gome.