“Chad is emerging from the shadows,” said Idriss Deby, the president of Chad during a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for two future photovoltaic power plants to be built in the Gaoui district on the outskirts of N'Djamena, the country's capital. Intended to strengthen the capacity of the country's utility, National Electricity Company (SNE), and meet the capital's electrical energy needs, the two projects will have a capacity of 50 MW each.

Their construction will require an investment of around $150 million (€126 million) dollars and its developer is Austrian company Merl Solar. According to the managing director of the company, construction will be completed within 12 months and the solar parks will be linked to 10 MWh of storage capacity.

According to Chad's government, the electricity generated by the two plants will be bought by SNE over 20 years. At the end of this period, the company will transfer the plant ownership to the power company. “The construction will create 400 to 500 direct jobs and has many advantages: the price per kilowatt-hour delivered to SNE at XAF55 (€0.083/kW); the creation of a vocational training center in N'Djamena; the academic training of young graduates in the field of energy; as well as the realization of social works within the framework of corporate social responsibility,” stated the government.

“This is a first phase, a major project that we have been supporting for years,” said Deby, adding that the country is now open to industrial partners and investors wishing to set up projects in the energy sector. “We have tax-exempted everything that accompanies projects of the kind,” he said. The announcement comes just days after the announcement of another 30 MWp solar PV plant, to be set up in Sarh, a town of over 110,000 inhabitants located in southeastern Chad.