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back to article Rwanda fires up Africa's 'biggest' solar plant

Rwanda yesterday unveiled a 250-kilowatt solar plant which ups the nation's 'leccy-producing capacity to 50 megawatts, Reuters reports. The German-backed project, said to be the largest in Africa, makes a modest contribution to the 100 megawatts the country needs "to meet soaring demand that has triggered regular blackouts". …

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  1. Alt0n

    Token

    Just how many lights will this plant keep on during the hours of darkness?

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  2. RichardSmith

    Power on demand

    When an engineer talks about a power plant producing 10 MW of power it is power on demand at any time of the day or night. If Solar Power plants are to compete fairly, you should include the inefficiencies of storing power.

    However, if 90% of the power generation is non-solar, and the solar helps at peak times (to run air conditioning for example), it can be useful.

    Warm regards, Rick

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  3. Kit Temple

    What sort of solar plant?

    Are we talking about a solar thermal (energy from heat) or photovoltaic (energy from light) solar plant?

    Of course, photovoltaic plants are a lot more sexy....

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  4. peter

    Sahara (2005)

    But are they dumping the nuclear waste !

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  5. Ole Juul

    How clean is clean?

    "This new installation does not only increase the generation capacity but is also one of the cleanest energy sources."

    Looking at a picture of one of these installations, they certainly look clean, but are they really? The panels have to be replaced after some years and they certainly must have cost some "carbon dollars" to produce. The storage batteries are also a definate area of concern. From what I see advertised, the batteries used currently seem to need replacement every few (10-15) years. Now that does not seem "clean" to me.

    Photovoltaic plants are generally advertised as producing power at almost eight times the cost that I pay here. That makes me wonder if those costs don't represent some unclean processes.

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