wiredinUSA March 2014

Hindustan Cleanenergy Ltd, part of HindustanPower Projects Ltd, is undertaking a major expansion plan. The company is aiming for an installed capacity of over 500MW of solar power generation by the end of 2014, increasing to 1,000MW by 2016. Of the 350MW installed to date about 120MW solar capacity is at overseas locations in Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan. In the expansion process now underway, about 100MW capacity is at an advanced stage of implementation and will be added shortly. Of this, around 50MW is in Gujarat and the rest in other states, including Madhya Pradesh, explained Rajya Wardhan Ghei, chief executive officer of Hindustan Cleanenergy. Cleanenergy in major expansion

Utility-scale solar for Rwanda

Work has begun on the construction of East Africa’s first utility-scale solar PV plant. The 8.5MW plant, which, once complete, will generate 8 percent of Rwanda's electricity, is being built on land belonging to Agahozo-Shalom youth village. The Rwandan government’s own objective is for a five-fold increase in renewable sources of power by 2017. The solar field will feed electricity into the national grid under a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Rwanda energy, water and sanitation authority (EWSA) and is expected to be operational before the end of the year. The $24 million project was announced by Yosef Abramowitz, the president of Gigawatt Global Coöperatief, which arranged for its financing. Agahozo-Shalom youth village is leasing the land, and some of the fees generated will be used to help fund the charity's ongoing activities. The village was built to take care of orphans of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. It was founded by the late Anne Heyman, who died in January following a horse riding accident.

wiredInUSA - March 2014

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