A Belgian company will be involved in the construction of a US$8b green power plant in Rwanda. Once complete the power plant will add 12 MW to the national grid.
Francois Kanimba, the Minister for Trade and Industry, said that cooperation between both countries would boost export revenues, entrepreneurship skills as well as foster strong cooperation with European markets.
Construction of the plant which is set to be from bio-degradable waste will hopefully be complete in the next eight months.
Diogene Harerimana, the Managing Director of the Belgian company confirmed the reports and said that 2 MW will immediately be produced once the project is complete.
“The factory will be available in eight months as we have ordered for facilities. We will start by producing two megawatts immediately and then increase to twelve megawatts as per the agreement”, said Diogene Harerimana.
He further explained that electricity will be generated from the bio-degradable waste in Nduba dumpsite and will be processed by machines.
“The machines will separate degradable waste from non-degradable waste like plastics, trees, e-waste and stones. The decaying waste will then produce gas, which will then be burnt to produce electricity that will then get connected to national grid. The non-bio-degradable waste will be supplied to other factories for recycling”, he said.
This initiative was decided on after the Rwandan government set a target of increasing its electricity generation from the current 161.2MW to 563MW by 2018 and thus increasing the number of households with electricity from around 20 per cent currently to 70 per cent by 2018.