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US Firm signs PPA on 150 MW project in Uganda

US Firm signs PPA on 150 MW project in Uganda Cattle at Katwe, Uganda (source: flickr/ sarahemcc, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 19 Apr 2013

U.S. infrastructure firm AAE Systems and local partner Katwe Geothermal sign power purchase agreement for 150 MW Katwe project in Western Uganda.

Yesterday, the Ugandan Government signed a power purchasing agreement with American infrastructure firm AAE Systems on the construction of a 150 megawatt geothermal power plant at Katwe in Kasese in Western Uganda.

The project is expected to finish constructions within 2 years with an estimated project cost of $2.1 billion. AAE is partnering with Katwe Geothermal, as the local partner to the project.

“The agreement was signed Thursday by the Minister of Energy, Irene Muloni and the Director of the California based AAE Systems, Bryan Jones, at the Minister’s Board Room.

According to Muloni AAE will sell the power to Uganda cheaply at $0.08/ kWh, which she said is the cheapest in the market.

Currently, only about 13 percent of the population is connected to power while the remaining 87 need it but are unable to have it.

Muloni said that the project is encouraging for the country because the government wants to encourage renewable sources of energy instead of depending on hydropower which is dependent on water levels and thermal power which is expensive to make.”

Source: New Vision