Work on Qair's 5.8-MW Seychelles floating PV park to start in July

French independent power producer (IPP) Qair plans to launch the installation of a 5.8-MW floating solar array in Seychelles in July, it said on Monday.

The company, formerly known as Lucia Holding group, expects work on the project, to be mainly carried out by local companies, to take six months. This was announced during a visit by government officials from France and Seychelles to the site of the proposed project on the lagoon of Providence.

The floating photovoltaic (PV) plant will be located on Mahe island and will be the world's biggest seawater floating solar system and the first one of its kind in Africa, once completed. Covering an area of 40,000 sq m of water, the facility will consist of around 13,500 PV modules whose output will account for 2% of Seychelles’ national power production. Its output is planned to be purchased by the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC).

A local unit of Quadran, part of Lucia Holding, and Seychelles solar company VetiverTech won the project in a tender launched in 2018.

Qair aims at commissioning 1 GW of renewables capacity by 2022. It currently operates 220 MW of power generation assets, mainly renewables, and has an additional 780 MW of projects under construction or at an advanced stage of development.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!