30 of March 2021

Seminar Opportunities for IPP Projects: conclusions and next steps

The Seminar Opportunities for IPP Projects: Renewables in Mozambique 2021, took place on the 24th of March and was supported by GET.invest Mozambique - financed by the European Union and Germany, and part of the European program GET.invest, and was organised in partnership with the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Mozambique Women in Energy (MWE) and Solar Power Europe.

 

The morning was divided in online technical sessions during which representatives of the Government and its cooperation partners was presenting in detail the available support programmes to IPP in detail. Sectorial associations and companies had offer their perspective of private sector participation in these projects. Finally, a representative of the GET.invest Finance Catalyst was presenting a summary of the IPP financing options available in the national and international markets.

Watch here the speakers presentations.

If you were not present or if you want to review the event click here.

This Seminar resulted in important contributions, of which we highlight the following:

Conclusions

 

  • Germany announced a total of 175 M € of support to the energy sector, underlining the GET.FiT program for the IPP segment;
  • The European Union stressed that there is no vaccine to protect us from rising temperatures, which is why strong and coordinated action is needed and stressed that PROLER is a good example of inclusion of the private sector, increasing competition and transparency of processes;
  • GET.invest expressed its availability to support projects below 50 MW and with an investment above 250 thousand € and informed that they have a specific country window for Mozambique;
  • The Government highlighted the importance of local content, referring to the participation of 50 Mozambican companies among the various projects presented;
  • EDM guaranteed to be looking proactively at local content and underlined its importance for the promotion of the Mozambican economy;
  • AFD presented the PROLER components and highlighted the PROLER + structure to provide additional financial tools. It was mentioned that the request for proposals from the Dondo plant will be launched in early April, and the launch of expressions of interest for the Malje and Lichinga plants scheduled for the first half of 2022. The main challenge was to change the EDM procurement for ARENE;
  • IFC listed the opportunities for battery solutions and their advantages for Mozambique, namely grid stabilization, among others;
  • Scatec identified the challenges of land management, qualified national human resources, local suppliers with capacity, the bank's lack of liquidity and the exchange rate;
  • APREN shared the example of Portugal, which experienced some of Mozambique's current challenges, managing to overcome them and allowing Portugal to become a mature renewable market with positive impacts at various levels;
  • IPEME reinforced the need for SMEs to be organized and well structured and reinforced the importance of partnerships in order to scale production;
  • MWE said that some of the current local content initiatives in the Oil & Gas sector can be extended to renewables;
  • CTA stressed the need to disclose the applicable legislation, the importance of training, “banking” on this activity and coordination between partners.
  • The Finance Catalyst highlighted the importance of the C&I sector in the context of the revision of the law, as well as storage and announced that they have already received 700 applications, mostly for IPP projects.


Next Steps

 

• Make available the Briefing: Renewables in Mozambique 2021 and we will deliver hard copies to the main institutions in Mozambique;

• Create joint ALER-AMER working groups on each of the sectors: IPP, mini-grids, SHS, and clean cooking, so that we can identify the priorities of the private sector and the contributions that we will make directly to the Mozambican government and institutions, as well as cooperation partners if necessary. The mini-grid working group has already been created, see here for more information;

• We are also available to identify possible business partners and suppliers, please contact us directly with your need, so we will be able to advise;

• Between the 2nd semester of 2021 and the 1st semester of 2022 we will again organize another event to meet and be able to exchange views and share the latest developments.

 

We invite everyone to join us, AMER and ALER, so that together we can boost opportunities for renewable projects in Mozambique.

Become our Member to have access to these and other advantages. Read out more here.

We are all available, ALER, AMER and partners to make our contribution towards reaching the goal of universal access by 2030 and to promote local content!