MADAGASCAR: €7m guarantee for Ambatolampy solar park storage system

News about the Ambatolampy solar power plant in Madagascar. Its developer GreenYellow Madagascar has obtained a 33 billion ariary (€7.1 million) guarantee from the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and GuarantCo, a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG). The guarantee covers the financial mobilisation for the installation of a storage system at the Ambatolampy solar photovoltaic power plant, whose capacity was recently increased from 20 to 40 MWp.

The storage system envisaged at the solar park will have a capacity of 5 MWh. As part of the transaction arranged by the Malagasy subsidiary of the French bank Société Générale, GuarantCo is providing a guarantee of 23.6 billion ariary (€5m) and 9.4 billion ariary (€2m) from AGF. The electricity storage system will stabilise the grid of Jiro sy rano malagasy (JIRAMA), the state-owned company that buys the electricity produced by the Ambatolampy solar photovoltaic plant.

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GuarantCo and AGF also supported the solar plant expansion project by providing a guarantee of 51.7 billion ariary, or €10.6 million. “These two transactions have been instrumental in encouraging private sector banks to lend to solar energy projects and have played a major role in strengthening the capacity of these banks to finance clean energy projects that are essential for the sustainable development of Madagascar,” says Layth Al-Falaki, GuanrantCo’s CEO.

For the record, the Ambatolampy solar power plant is 51% owned by the Malagasy group Axian, and 49% by GreenYellow, a subsidiary of the French group Casino. The first phase of the solar plant was built on a 28-hectare site in the Vakinankaratra region. The plant was refinanced in 2020 in a deal involving the commercial bank Société Générale, GuarantCo and AGF.

Jean Marie Takouleu