The Soroti Power Station is a

solar power plant A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. It was the largest grid-connected, "privately-funded solar power plant at opuyo, soroti district in uganda, outside of South Africa" at its commissioning and until the Pilot Solar Power Plant (20MW) of The Xsabo Group in Kabulasoke (

Kabulasoke Solar Power Station The Xsabo Group's pilot solar power plant in Kabulasoke, also known as Kabulasole Solar Power Station or Namulaba Solar Power Station, is a solar power plant in Uganda. Location The power station is in the Namulaba Village, Butiti Parish, Kab ...

) in Central Uganda was completed and commissioned in January 2019.

Location

The power station is located in

Soroti District Soroti District is a Districts of Uganda, district in Eastern Region, Uganda, Eastern Uganda. It is named after its chief municipal, administrative and commercial headquarters, Soroti, where the district headquarters are located. Location Soroti D ...

, southeast of the city of

Soroti Soroti is a city in Eastern Region, Uganda, Eastern Region of Uganda. It is the main city, commercial, and administrative center in Soroti District, one of the nine administrative districts in the Teso sub-region. Soroti city was immediately app ...

in the

Eastern Region Eastern Region or East Region may refer to: * Eastern Region (Abu Dhabi): Al Ain *Eastern Region, Ghana *Eastern Region (Iceland) *Eastern Region, Malta *Eastern Region, Nepal *Eastern Region, Nigeria * Eastern Region, Serbia *Eastern Region, Ugand ...

of Uganda, approximately by road north-east of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

, the country's capital and largest city. The geographical coordinates of Soroti Solar Power Station are 1°41'06.0"N, 33°39'29.0"E (Latitude:1.685000; Longitude:33.658056).

Overview

The power station has a 10 megawatt capacity. Its output is sold directly to the

Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited The Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) is a parastatal company whose primary purpose is to make bulk electricity purchases and transmit the electricity along high-voltage wires to local and foreign distribution points. UETCL ...

for integration into the national grid. The power is evacuated via a substation near the station. It has been estimated that the energy generated could power approximately 40,000 homes located near the station, thereby minimizing transmission losses. The power station, which consists of 32,680 photovoltaic panels, is Uganda's first grid-connected solar plant. The power station sits on of land.

Developers

The power station was developed by a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

of ''Access Power Limited'' (through its subsidiary Access Uganda Solar), a company based in the United Arab Emirates(Sunztech power), an
TSK Electrónica y Electricidad
a company based in Spain. They won the competitive bidding and were awarded the development contract at the same time as the developers of the Tororo Solar Power Station. As of February 2022, the power station has been sold to and is now owned by Total Eren, the renewable energy subsidiary of the French energy conglomerate, TotalEnergies.

Construction costs, funding, and commissioning

The construction costs were US$19 million. The project received partial funding from the European Union Infrastructure Trust Fund through

KfW The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national ...

. On 12 December 2016, the solar plant was switched on.

References

External links