Distributed Power Africa (DPA) and Mettle Solar have finalised their US$1.2m joint investment into EADC Asset Co - a company specifically set up to own and operate a 1MW solar plant powering Liquid Telecom’s East Africa Data Centre (EADC) in Nairobi.

Mettle Solar is a Gridworks investee company, financed by CDC Group plc, the UK’s development finance institution. CDC Group also provided debt funding to the project through a facility made available to via CDC Group’s Resource Efficiency Facility.

EADC is touted as the largest datacentre in East Africa and forms part of Africa Data Centres, a subsidiary of Liquid Group.

The solar plant will enable EADC to significantly lower their overall energy costs whilst at the same time reducing their carbon footprint.

Norman Moyo, DPA Africa CEO said: “We are excited to have a DFI-backed company like Mettle, as a co-investor alongside DPA. With sub-Sahara Africa experiencing major power cuts, businesses in Africa are increasingly interested in affordable and reliable energy. We also believe energy to be a fundamental pillar in supporting Africa’s economic development, and this unique partnership is an important building block towards realising our vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind.”

Francois Van Themaat, Mettle Solar CEO added: “We are very happy and excited to be working with Norman and his team at DPA to help reduce the energy costs and carbon footprint of the largest data centre in East Africa. We look forward to building on this partnership with DPA and to keep on playing our part to assist businesses across the region with their energy needs.”