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Apex BP Solar completes two shipments to Zambia equal to 260 kW After supplying 130 PV systems to Zambia in February for community-based organizations plus nine schools, the French-based PV supplier Apex BP Solar said it was preparing to deliver another 110 solar home systems (SHS) in March. The two shipments, equal to nearly 260 kW, were sent to its local partner, Electrical Maintenance Lusaka Ltd. (EML). George Narder, CEO of the Zambian integrator, says his company was installing the systems using $2.5 million of funding from a project managed by the Zambia Social Investment Fund (ZAMSIF), a unit of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning in cooperation with a credit agreement with the International Development Association (IDA).ZAMSIF also awarded another lot to a second integrator but did not respond to questions. In a Dec. 20 article in the Times of Zambia, Henry Mwape, owner of the installer Sun Solar Systems, had complained that the government and ZAMSIF had been contracting foreign companies to install solar in various parts of the country, while leaving out Zambian entrepreneurs. According to EML's Narder, the cost of solar equipment is still out of the reach of most of the 10.5 million Zambians. Narder, who estimates that there are fewer than 1,000 SHS in the country, puts the current installed PV capacity at about 600 kW.
William P. Hirshman
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