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The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is financing Sierra Leone’s first major utility-scale power plant to increase the country’s electricity generation capacity by about 75 percent and provide hundreds of gigawatt hours of power per year for homes, businesses, hospitals, and health facilities.
DFC stated on their website that they have committed to providing financing to support the development of an 83.5 MW combined cycle thermal power plant, which will initially be fueled by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) before converting to liquefied natural gas (LNG), a cleaner and more energy-efficient fuel.
“As Sierra Leone’s first large utility-scale independent power project, and its first ever gas-fired power project, this power plant is expected to increase the country’s effective generation capacity by about 75 percent and provide hundreds of gigawatt hours of power per year for homes, businesses, hospitals, and health facilities,” DFC stated.
“In addition, this stable baseload power source will help contribute to the future integration of large-scale intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power, by providing a reliable counterbalance to consumers’ fluctuating power consumption on the electricity grid,” they added.
According to DFC, Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 182 out of 189 on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, adding that, “One major impediment to economic growth is limited access to electricity: Only about one-quarter of the population has a reliable source of power and that shrinks to about six per cent in rural parts of the country.
“This shortage leaves the country highly dependent on expensive offshore energy barges that burn heavy fuel oil (HFO), as well as generators running on diesel. And because more than half of Sierra Leone’s installed generation capacity comes from hydropower, power generation is highly vulnerable to drought,” DFC noted.
U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is America’s development finance institution. DFC partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today.
They invest across sectors including energy, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and technology. DFC also provides financing for small businesses and women entrepreneurs in order to create jobs in emerging markets.
