assistance

SUCCESS STORIES

Seychelles PV Solar -- the first photovoltaic project in Africa, and one of the first salt-water floating solar PV plants in the world

The ALSF has supported the Seychelles for the tender process and issuance of a Conditional Award to the private developer Quandran International for the construction of 4 MW floating PV plant. Seychelles – like many islands – has excellent solar PV potential but also has limited land availability for ground-mounted solar. Floating PV provides the opportunity to solve the challenge of land constraints and at the same time, the dependence on fossil fuel and the challenge of clean energy generation. The project is basically the installation of a 4 MW Floating grid connected solar PV plant located at the Lagoon at Providence. The lagoon at Providence was chosen as the site due to its accessibility, protection from open water and injection into the grid. This project is an IPP project and will be Africa’s first utility-scale FPV plant in a marine environment. By using FPV, Seychelles can maximize their solar PV potential and therefore rely on clean, renewable energy sources rather than imported fossil fuels. As mentioned before, FPV solves the twin challenges of land constraints and clean energy generation. Being a clean energy project, the project provides significant economic and fuel savings to the country. The African Legal Support Facility as serving as the transaction and tender advisers supports the project.