Promoting solar energy in rural and semi-urban areas II

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Nepal is suffering from a growing electricity deficit, which is being compensated for by importing electricity from India, mainly from coal. In order to reduce climate-damaging electricity imports, Nepal is focusing not only on further expanding hydropower but also on promoting solar energy, the high potential of which has so far been used primarily in small, decentralized applications. Larger photovoltaic systems, which can make a significant contribution to reducing the electricity deficit, have hardly been built so far. But this is now set to change. The Nepali government has set an expansion target of 150 MW for solar energy by 2023. The aim of the project is therefore to contribute to this expansion plan by providing ground-mounted solar power plants, to improve the supply of solar power in Nepal and to reduce CO2 emissions. The plan is to finance three solar power plants with a targeted total generation capacity of around 8 MW. The project sponsor is the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).