Salima Solar named Utility-scale solar project of the year by AFSIA
JCM Power is pleased to announce that the Salima project has won the prestigious title of Utility-scale solar project of the year by the African Solar Industry Association at the 2021 awards hosted on 28 November during the Africa Energy Forum (AEF)
The AFSIA Awards are designed to recognise and celebrate companies and individuals that have contributed outstandingly to promoting and advancing the use of solar across Africa in its full diversity. They recognise good practice, professionalism, quality, safety and innovation, with the aim of being a marker of the brightest and best that the African solar industry has to offer.
Salima Solar is the first commercial-scale solar photovoltaic plant in Malawi and is now delivering 60MWac of clean power to the country’s national grid.
Accepting the award on the night, InfraCo Africa’s Head of Business Development, Nabil Saimi, said: “I am honoured to accept this award on behalf of the Salima Solar Project. The project has been a true collaboration between ourselves at InfraCo Africa, the wider PIDG and our partners, JCM Power.
We have had strong support throughout from the Government of Malawi and the national utility, ESCOM, for our vision to deliver significant solar generation capacity to Malawi’s national grid.” Mr Saimi continued, “Salima Solar is Malawi’s first utility-scale solar IPP. We have taken learnings from this; continuing our partnership with JCM to commence construction on another – Golomoti Solar – which, thanks to support from Innovate UK, will pioneer the use of a battery energy storage system to further integrate renewables into Malawi’s national grid.” Mr Saimi concluded, “We are also extremely proud of the project’s work with local communities to support health outcomes and agricultural livelihoods and we look forward to continuing this work now that the plant is operational.”
Speaking from Malawi, Justin Woodward, JCM Power’s Co-founder and Chief Development Officer, said, “We are delighted that Salima Solar has been recognised by AFSIA, it is a truly ground-breaking project – Malawi’s first utility-scale solar IPP – which is now delivering 60MWac of clean power to Malawi’s energy customers.” He concluded: “We were honoured to receive His Excellency Lazerus Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi on site yesterday to officially mark Salima Solar’s inauguration and this news really adds to the sense of a ‘job well done’ among the project team.”
http://afsiasolar.com/salima-solar-recognized-as-afsias-utility-scale-solar-project-of-the-year/
