Bamburi Cement Embarks on Construction of Solar PV Plant

By The COAST Reporter

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

Bamburi Cement Plc’s solar photovoltaic (PV) power project is ready for construction after satisfying all conditions set up for its kick-off.

The company has signed the Land Lease Agreement (LLA), Connection Facilities Agreement (CFA), Conditions Precedence (CP) Satisfaction and Construction Start Date Letters with the independent power producer MOMNAI Energy Limited, a company, established for the project by Frontier Energy, a leading African renewable energy developer and investor.

The signing marks the start of a one year construction period for the Solar PV Plants of 14.5MW and 5MW capacities, located in Bamburi’s Mombasa and Athi River sites respectively. This comes two years after the two parties signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) licensed PPA to generate and distribute power supply. Bamburi also got approvals from National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and respective counties for land change of use.

Bamburi Cement PLC chief executive officer Mohit Kapoor explained the project milestones as a critical step towards the realization of the company’s energy efficiency ambitions.

“This is one of Kenya’s largest commercial solar projects undertaken by a cement company and the first in Sub Saharan Africa within the Holcim Group.”

It will account for 30% of its total power supply, resulting in massive energy cost savings, reduce the business impact of load shedding and significantly contributing to reaching Net Zero carbon emissions by shifting to renewable energy.

Bamburi Cement’s project lead and strategy & business development director Miriam Ngolo says the project aims to achieve recurrent power-saving costs for Bamburi Cement.

“This strategic partnership with MOMNAI Energy will accelerate our decarbonisation journey and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the use of zero-carbon renewable energy sources,” she.

Under the agreement, MOMNAI Energy will be responsible for financing the construction, management, and maintenance costs of the entire project, while Bamburi Cement will lease out land in Mombasa and Nairobi plants sites for the Solar PV Plants.

Frontier Energy Investment director Anders Hauch, said: “As a committed developer and investor in renewable energy in Africa, we are excited to start construction of our 14th renewable energy project and our first project with a private off-taker.”

This will also be one of the largest private off-take projects in Africa and supplying the global leading cement group, Holcim, thus helping it reduce its climate impact.

“We will continue to develop more renewable energy for utilities and private off-takers in Africa to combat climate change and provide affordable energy to people and businesses,” he added.

Frontier Energy is a leading developer and investor of renewable energy and energy storage in Sub-Saharan Africa with capital from European development banks and institutional investors.

The project green light comes following the release of the company’s 2022 Sustainability Report that details its green growth trajectory geared towards decarbonizing its business operations to achieve net-zero carbon (CO2) emissions by 2050.

In 2022, the company lowered its carbon emissions by 3.2% and achieved a 5.5% increase in the use of alternative fuels in its operations.