Oriental Renewable Solutions (“Oriental”), a subsidiary of the Oriental Group has reached an agreement with GreenWish Partners (“GreenWish”) to co-develop the company’s solar power project in Jigawa State.

The 50:50 equity partnership will see both firms work together to deliver new capacity of 50MW to Northern Nigeria.

Oriental signed a 20 year dollar denominated Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (“NBET”) for the Jigawa project in July 2016.

The agreement formed part of a wider NBET process to sign PPA’s to deliver 1.2GW of solar generation capacity to the Nigerian grid, the first series of solar PPAs ever signed in Nigeria.

The Jigawa solar project will have an output of circa. 96 GWh per year, equivalent to the consumption of more than 650 000 people.

The plant will also generate estimated savings of around 354 000 tons of CO2 per year (World Bank data).

The community is strongly involved in the project at all steps in order to ensure support from all stakeholders and positive local impact, in line with GreenWish and Oriental’s inclusive business models.

The plant will also create 300 jobs during construction and 25 permanent jobs during operations.

Finally, the project will feed local infrastructures such as hospitals, schools and businesses with grid power, directly and indirectly creating hundreds of jobs in the region.

Nigeria has installed generation capacity of 12.6GW, but availability of considerably less than that, and average transmission of between 3 and 4.5GW over the last year. This is further affected by disruption to gas supply, on which the vast majority of Nigeria’s power infrastructure relies. The development of significant generation capacity in solar, and other renewables offers a strong counterbalance to the vulnerability of gas production and distribution infrastructure, while significantly reducing Nigeria’s long term carbon footprint.

Commenting on the partnership, Alhaji (Dr.)Muhammadu Indimi, Oriental Group Chairman said: “Nigeria’s potential is hindered by the current power deficit. Oriental Group recognises the important role renewable energy can play in bridging this gap by offering up a viable alternative to oil and gas extraction. The potential impact of solar power is limitless and will cut across all sectors of the economy, reducing the cost of doing business and increasing the quality of life for Nigerians.

“We are pleased to be working in Partnership with GreenWish. They share our belief that renewable energy has the potential to meet the challenges we face and are bringing a combination of both financial and technical support. I look forward to working with them as we work towards financial close.”

Charlotte Aubin-Kalaidjian, president, GreenWish Partners also commented saying: “The Jigawa solar plant is a first concrete step towards the extension and diversification of the energy mix for a sustainable electrification of Nigeria. Not only will the solar farm help local communities in remote areas to have access to electricity, it will also unleash economic activity while reducing the deficit of the balance of payments for the country as a whole.”