Kigali Solaire is a solar power plant in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

and at the time of construction was Africa's largest grid-tied solar energy installation. It was built in 2006 on Mont Jali near the capital

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

. The plant uses

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

s and has a peak output of 250 kW and an estimated annual output of 325,000 kWh. It was financed by the German city of Mainz's utility company Stadtwerke Mainz AG (now: Mainzer Stadtwerke AG), with Mainz being the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, which has a partnership with Rwanda. The plant is only part of the initiative, consisting also of distributing 30 photovoltaic panels of 1 kW each to villages outside the countries power grid, which accesses only 5% of the country. The small stations are usually installed on the roof of hospitals or schools. The initiative is also financing and training local technicians for the maintenance of all the installations.

References

Solar power stations in Rwanda Photovoltaic power stations {{Rwanda-struct-stub