Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi (picture), Sudan’s minister of investments, has announced that power developer Scatec Solar might build in the country a 400MW solar plant.

“We invited them to come to discuss a power-sharing agreement. We told them that we are not on for small projects. They said their initial start could be 400 MW,” Al-Fadil told Reuters during an interview.

The project is expected to cost about $450 million. Works are expected to start a year after the related power purchase agreement is concluded. This agreement is actually being prepared by authorities.

With a power production capacity of more than 3000MW, according to the Cia World Factbook, Sudan has an electrification rate of less than 40%, for a population of 37 million people. “Given the growth on demand, we need at least 5,000 new megawatts to build in the country. Renewable is preferable for us,” the minister said. 

The official revealed that talks are actually going on for the construction of 280MW of wind power plants by Danish firms.

Gwladys Johnson