Three PIDG companies help realise pioneering Djermaya solar project in Chad

Located 30km north of Chad’s capital city, N’Djamena, EAIF has loaned €9.3 million to the Djermaya CDEN Energy SAS in Chad. The project has been developed by EAIF’s sister PIDG company, InfraCo Africa, through Anergi Africa Developments Ltd (AADL), with its partner Smart Energies. Denham Capital entered the project as long-term investors through Neo Themis. The financing of the project was completed at a signing in Paris in November 2021. Djermaya Solar is expected to begin delivering power to Chad’s national grid in 2023.

Djermaya Solar will be developed in two phases totalling 60MW (34MW in the first phase) and is the first solar project to be designed, financed, built and operated by an independent power producer (IPP) in Chad. The project will also pioneer utility-scale energy storage in the country, incorporating a 4MWh Battery Energy Storage System, 18km transmission line and a substation funded with €6.35 million of concessional debt from the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund (EU-AITF). InfraCo Africa has also leveraged €1.33 million of grant funding from PIDG Technical Assistance (PIDG TA) to support legal and environmental advisory services and an additional US$1.5million capital grant.

Paromita Chatterjee, an Investment Director at EAIF’s managers, Ninety One, said,

“The Djermaya project is particularly significant because it is pioneering renewable energy and battery storage in Chad. Its key strategic function is to help Chad unlock the country’s economic potential and to fly the flag for more green energy projects in the country. The three PIDG companies involved – InfraCo Africa, EAIF and PIDG TA – were each key parts of the eventual successful financing of the Djermaya facility.”

Djermaya CDEN Energy (DCE), the project company, has signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement to supply Chad’s national electricity utility. The Government of Chad and DCE have also signed a Put and Call Option Agreement and a Fiscal and Customs Agreement as part of the project financing approach required to start construction in early 2022.