| Company | PIDG |
| Sector | Power/energy |
| Country | Madagascar |
| Total Project Cost | EUR 13.1 million |
| PIDG Commitment |
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| Dates of PIDG involvement |
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Madagascar faces an acute deficit of electricity access. Only 15 per cent of Madagascar’s c. 32 million population have access to electricity, with considerable disparity between urban (79 per cent) and rural (8 per cent) areas. Madagascar’s energy mix is presently dominated by heavy fuel oil and diesel but it has set a national target of 80 per cent of its energy mix to come from renewable energy by 2030.
A proposed extension to the NEA Ambatolampy solar project, the country’s first grid connected solar plant, will provide improved electricity access and stability to an additional c. 285,000 people.
PIDG provided NEA Ambatolampy, with two credit guarantees totalling EUR 13.1 million to finance a 20 MW solar plant extension alongside a 5 MW solar battery storage system in Ambatolampy, a city in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. The finance was made available by PIDG’s guarantees solution, GuarantCo, via a syndicate of local banks with Société Générale as the main lender.
PIDG was the first company to mobilise local currency from commercial banks for utility scale solar projects in Madagascar. Through demonstration and replication, this is expected to enhance the resilience of the power sector by diversifying away from thermal power, reducing the cost of generation and improving the sustainability of the state-owned electric utility and water company.
The transaction is helping crowd–in the private sector and is playing a major role in making local banks more comfortable with local solar power projects, which is key for the development of future projects in Madagascar. It is expected that the transaction will contribute to market transformation through demonstration and replication effects in the energy market.
The project will provide improved electricity access to around 285,000 people and reduce emissions by 34,000 tonnes of CO2 through the displacement of thermal power.
