The new Solar Plant the second to be commissioned in Eastern Uganda after Soroti, should according to official see a future reduction in the cost of power. “...we fully believe that access to clean, reliable, low-cost energy and truly make a difference and promote business growth, creating employment, raising household income and intangibly improving people’s lives.” Matteo Birambilla – Building Energy, SA.

“Build it then we can attract investment. Because when investors come they will not wait for us to start building power plants. Let us have an abundance of electricity first then we can deal with affordability. You can’t say Oil is too expensive to let’s not build, first bring it, then, also address the process of bringing the price down.” Said, Patrick Bitature – Chairman, Uganda Investment Authority.

With only 22% of the rural population connected to electricity, power generated from this 32,240 panels would serve an estimated 40,000 homes located near the power station but also minimize transmission losses. “The government has come out with a policy to accelerate access to electricity to reach the other 78% of the population that don’t have access to clean energy. And we are coming up with a new connection policy where people will be connected free of charge but will be responsible for installing the wires in their houses or premises and also they will pay their bills but connecting you to the grid will be paid by the government with support from the development partners.” Said, Ziria Tibalwa – ED, Electricity Regulatory Authority. Keen on expanding the country’s electricity generation capacity to support an industrialization drive, the government was currently pursuing several multi-billion Dollar projects most of them in Hydro-power generation.