Dubai-based solar energy developer, investment manager and asset manager, Phanes Group, has announced it has acquired and will co-develop three 100MW grid-connected solar plants in Nigeria.

The ground-mounted projects will significantly raise Nigeria’s current solar capacity and contribute to the Nigerian government’s ambitions to generate 2000MW of power from renewable sources by 2020, the company said in a statement.

The projects span three locations, including the Mando area of Kaduna, Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi and Sokoto in the north-west of Nigeria.

The latter benefits from one of the highest irradiation levels in the country and is backed by one of the 14 recently signed government power purchase agreements with utility-scale solar power developers which will collectively add around 1,200MW of solar capacity to the grid.

The first 50MW of Phanes Group’s Sokoto project will be grid-connected as early as the first quarter of 2018, and the project is expected to be complete by the end of 2018, the company added.

It said the Kebbi and Kaduna projects will be delivered under the Hasken-Rana brand, a joint venture between Phanes Group and its Nigerian partners, and are due for completion before the end of 2019.

“Nigeria’s policy makers have worked proactively to address the nation’s immediate and long term electrification challenges through the introduction of attractive clean energy policies, and we are beginning to see the fruits of those policies,” said Martin Haupts, CEO of Phanes Group.

“Despite its challenges, Nigeria’s potential for solar development is unquestionable and from a standing start it may soon emerge as solar leader among its sub-Saharan African peers.”

The projects will be managed and delivered from Phanes Group’s new Nigerian office, which is expected to be operational from the end of this year. This follows the opening of the company’s African’s headquarters in South Africa earlier this year.