{"id":15594,"date":"2015-11-25T09:41:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T08:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.sma-sunny.com\/?p=15594"},"modified":"2017-12-13T16:11:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T15:11:28","slug":"solar-power-for-rwanda-a-great-project-in-a-great-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/en\/solar-power-for-rwanda-a-great-project-in-a-great-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Power for Rwanda: \u201cA Great Project in a Great Country.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2013, the first PV power plant in Eastern Africa was connected to the utility grid, boosting Rwanda\u2019s capability to generate electricity by six percent. The PV power plant, built in the shape of the African continent, is situated around 60\u00a0kilometers east of the Rwandan capital Kigali, on land belonging to the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV), a community that looks after orphans. Here, eight Sunny Central 800CP inverters in four Medium-Voltage Power Station 1600SC systems convert direct current into alternating current, providing around 15,000 Rwandan homes with electricity every year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Matthias<\/a>

Matthias Beck<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cA great project in a great country,\u201d said Matthias Beck, a member of SMA sales staff responsible for the project and a big fan of Africa. \u201cWhat really impresses me is how forward-looking Rwanda is. The representatives from the Rwandan electric utility company also demonstrated excitement and enthusiasm about the possibilities of photovoltaics when they visited us here in Niestetal.\u00a0Rwanda is a hilly and green country with maximum temperatures ranging between 15 and 30 degrees Celsius, which is excellent when you want to construct a PV power plant with a consistently high power output,\u201d said Matthias. \u201cHere the challenge isn\u2019t extreme heat or extreme temperature fluctuations as in other regions in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge in Rwanda is however the instability of the utility grid. The country\u2019s utility grid is poorly structured, often fails and currently only provides around 20\u00a0percent of the population with access to electricity. Therefore, those responsible for the grid in Rwanda were particularly interested in the possibility of using PV power plants to generate and provide an operating energy reserve to stabilize the utility grid where it is needed most. \u201cThey visited us in Niestetal and learned a lot from our experienced experts about grid stability and grid management services,\u201d explained Matthias.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\t\t