US lends $99m to Mozambique’s first wind-power project

DFC will also provide $80 million in political risk insurance to Globeleq Africa, which is developing the 120-megawatt project near Namaacha in the south of the nation, the lender said in an emailed statement Tuesday. The project will require a total of about $268 million in funding, according to the DFC’s website.

The southern African nation of more than 33 million people is mostly reliant on a single hydroelectric dam for its power generation.

The wind-power plant, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, will reach financial close this year, according to Globeleq.

The developer, majority owned by British International Investment Plc, the UK government’s development-finance arm, has a growing presence in Mozambique. It’s building a 450-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Inhambane province and has constructed two solar plants with a joint capacity of 60 megawatts.