Bwengu Solar Power Station

The Bwengu Solar Power Station is a 50 megawatts solar power plant, under construction in Malawi. The power station is under development by a consortium led by Quantel Renewable Energy, an independent power producer (IPP), based in the United States. Construction began in February 2022, with commercial commissioning expected in the first quarter of 2023. The energy generated at this solar farm is expected to be sold to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).

Location
The power station is under construction on 105 ha, in the community of Ulalo Nyirenda, in the town of Bwengu, in the Mzimba District, in Malawi's Northern Region.

Bwengu is located approximately 150 km by road, northeast of Mzimba, the location of the district headquarters. This is about 54 km, by road, northwest of the city of Mzuzu, the regional headquarters. Bwengu lies approximately 409 km, by road, north of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi.

Overview
The design of the solar farm calls for a generation capacity of 50 megawatts. The power generated here will be evacuated to an ESCOM substation, less than 1 km from the solar farm, where it will be intergraded into the national grid. The off-taker will be Power Market Limited (PML), the sole national bulk electricity transmitter and a component of ESCOM.

Developers
The consortium that owns and is developing this power station, comprises three entities as listed in the table below. The owners are expected to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) company to develop, finance, build, own, operate and maintain the power station. For descriptive purposes, we will call the SPV company Bwengu Solar Consortium.

Other considerations
The Malawian government has plans to increase national generation capacity from 532 megawatts in 2022 to 1,000 MW by 2025. Bwengu Solar Power Station helps the country progress towards that goal by providing 50 megawatts of clean renewable energy, reducing the country's carbon dioxide footprint and increasing the country's population with connection to grid electricity.