Distributed Power Africa takes aim at Zambia's energy sector

South Africa-based renewable energy company Distributed Power Africa (DPA) has moved into Zambia to rollout hybrid solar solutions for commercial and industrial businesses, on a lease financing basis.

According to the solar power specialist, the latest initiative comes at an opportune time as Zambia has continued to experience power shortages resulting into long hours of power outages.

The company, which has operations in Kenya and Zimbawe, has in the last year, accelerated the deployment of green energy projects into sub-Sahara Africa, with notable solar rollouts in South Africa, Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

As one of the fastest growing solar energy solution providers in Africa, DPA has a pipeline of 450MW across its markets and primarily targets commercial and industrial customers with solar systems from 5kW to 5MW.

Norman Moyo, CEO, DPA Africa, said: “Businesses in Africa are increasingly interested in affordable and reliable energy, and due to the associated financial savings and environmental dividend, the replacement of generators with solar technology is a growing trend.”

Moyo added that the company has received tremendous interest from commercial and industrial players in Zambia, including banks, beverage manufacturers and malls. “We remain focussed on providing solar power with Lithium Ion battery technology to power up businesses efficiently,” he said.

Although solar energy is the fastest and easiest technology to deploy, it still remains prohibitive for most businesses to afford due to the huge upfront capital needed to setup.

According to DPA, that’s why it has introduced a flexible financing scheme that provides solar solutions on monthly instalments, with zero upfront investment. The company said as part of the lease, DPA takes full responsibility for engineering, procurement, installation, monitoring, maintenance, warranties and insurance, and guarantees customers zero technical risk.

DPA boasts Liquid Telecom, Schweppes, Total, UNESCO, Aga Khan Kuze and Ecobank some of its clients in sub-Saharan Africa.