PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Solar Energy Uganda announces plans for module factory in Entebbe

Solar Energy Uganda Ltd. (SEU) plans to start a module factory in Uganda. According to Richard Kanyike, managing director of the Kampala-based system integrator, construction work for the 1 MW factory in the village of Manyago near Entebbe has recently started, and module production is expected to begin by 2007.

© SMA Technologie AG

A second module factory planned in Uganda is aimed at supplying products to the local market. Pictured here is a 3.6 kW village electrification system in Uganda.

The plant will be named Solar Assembling Plant For Africa (SAPFA), and requires an investment of $3.4 million, of which 55 percent is already assured by Solar Energy Uganda. For the remaining share, negotiations with »interested parties in the US« are already taking place, but financial participation would still be open for other serious investors, says Kanyike. The factory will produce small multicrystalline modules for the regional market with power sizes of 10, 20, 32, and 64 W, all carrying the brand name SAPFA. The company says it would also start assembly of inverters, DC lamps, and charge controllers. For the latter, Kanyike says a license assembly agreement is under negotiation with the US-based manufacturer Morningstar.

It is not the first time that plans for solar module factories have been announced in Uganda. Already in 2002, Chinese company Shenzen Topway Co. Ltd. published plans for a local module production in Kampala (see PI 7/2002, p.6), but these plans never materialized. Shenzen could not be reached for comment. At least Racell Uganda Ltd., a Danish-Ugandan joint venture also based in Kampala, started manufacturing, and some modules have already been found on the local market. But the company seems to be far behind its initial plans of a 4 MW output in 2005 (see PI 12/2003, p. 6). Racells' Yakov Safir admits that there had been delays due to local conditions, but he also points to difficulties caused by the solar cell shortage.

However, it is doubtful that companies like SEU or Racell would easily find enough local customers to buy up the announced output of their factories. The size of the domestic PV market is estimated at only 500 kW per year, despite a World Bank rural energy program and other donor-driven initiatives. Racell's Safir is aware of this, saying that most of the modules are slated for export – »out of Africa.«