Malawi’s energy minister was on hand last week as the southeast African country inaugurated its first large-scale standalone battery energy storage system (BESS).

IPP JCM Power and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) are procuring a feasibility study for a project in Malawi combining a 50MW wind and 100MWh BESS.

Development banks IFC and AfDB have financed co-located projects in Malawi and Eritrea which collectively total 25MW of energy storage.

The US-based International Development Corporation (DFC) has provided a US$25 million loan for a solar-plus-storage project in Malawi with a 5MW/10MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).