Release, a joint venture between Norway’s Scatec (68 percent) and Climate Investor One (32 percent), announced on Monday that it will expand its existing solar and battery storage power plants in Cameroon after signing two new lease agreements with the national electricity company ENEO.

Release said in a statement that it will add 28.6 megawatts (MW) of solar and 19.2 MWh (megawatt-hours) of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to existing Maroua and Guider solar power plants with a combined capacity of 35.8MWof solar and 19MWh of battery storage, thereby increasing the total capacities to 64.4 MW of solar and 38.2 MWh of batteries.

The Maroua and Guider solar power plants are based on the Release solution of movable panels and batteries, which are deployed under a simple and flexible leasing contract.

The statement noted that Release has available funding for these projects based on the capital raise completed last year when Netherlands-based Climate Fund Managers came in as equity investor with 32 percent ownership stake.

Hans Olav Kvalvaag, CEO at Release said the pioneering leasing contracts are serving as a model for access to affordable clean energy for other countries and large energy consumers in the region.

“We have the funding available to support significant growth and expect to close and start implementing several additional projects from our pipeline in the coming months,” he said.

When the extensions of the projects are completed, Release’s projects in totality will supply energy to about 200,000 households in Cameroon, according to ENEO estimates, generating an annual production of about 141.5 GWh of electricity. In combination with the storage capacity the installation will ensure stable supply of electricity also during peak hours.

Amine Homman Ludiye, CEO of ENEO Cameroon said the projects will enable Eneo to further secure power generation in the Northern regions while also improving service quality for households and the industrial sector.

Gaston Eloundou Essomba, Minister of Water and Energy, Cameroon stated that the new project will further reduce the country’s dependency on diesel and save the government millions of dollars in fuel costs.

The projects were originally developed in partnership with Izuba Energy and Sphinx Energy.

Climate Investor One is an impact investment fund managed by based Climate Fund Managers.

(Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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