The projects are being developed in partnership with Virunga Power, a private investment company focused on developing, owning and operating sustainable community scale, power generation and distribution systems in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
The contract, which is to be financed by the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), will require detailed feasibility studies (DFS), including a solar hybridization assessment and grid interconnection studies, local distribution grid assessments, and an ESIA for the Ruvyi102 project in Ryansoro Commune of Gitega province with a potential installed capacity of 1.07 MW and the Mule037 project in Songa Commune of Bururi province with a potential capacity of 8 MW.
As part of the DFS, the consultant will assess the technical, economic and financial feasibility of solar-hydro hybridization on both sites to mitigate the country’s dependency on hydropower, levelize generation during dry and wet seasons, and mitigate the risk of increasing droughts. Among others, the consultant will identify potential sites, collect irradiation data and, complete a conceptual design. For each project, the consultant should prepare a DFS and update the existing ESIAs to attain a bankable ESIA in accordance with national regulations and international standards (IFC performance standards and AfDB’s Environmental and Social Assessment Procedures).
The full tender notice can be viewed on the website of the AfDB at: www.afdb.org.
For further information, contact: Thomas Burman at thomas.burman@virungapower.com; Bernard Moulins at bernard.moulins@virungapower.com; Dan Brose at dan.brose@songaenergy.com with cc to tenders@virungapower.com.
