The Republic of Mali has awarded a project management consultancy (PMC) contract to NTPC Limited for the development of a 500 MW solar park in the country.

The letter of award (LoA) was handed over to NTPC at an event attended by Union Power Minister R.K. Singh, President of International Solar Alliance (ISA), and the ambassador of Mali.

With this, Mali has become the second African country that is consulting with NTPC to develop solar projects.

In February 2020, NTPC was awarded the letter of engagement as the project management consultant for the development of 300 MW of solar power projects in Togo, another member country of the ISA. Togo was the first ISA country to avail of these services from India’s largest power producer. The Indian power producer had submitted a proposal to ISA to endorse it to provide PMC services to its member countries for the implementation of solar projects through competitive bidding.

Last year, in a letter to member countries, the ISA invited government-owned/public sector companies that have an operating solar capacity greater than 250 MW to submit proposals for consulting and developing solar projects in the utility-scale and rooftop solar domains.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, NTPC has 875 MW of large-scale solar projects in operation, and about 2.1 GW capacity is currently under development.

The invitation came after NTPC proposed that the ISA should endorse it as a consultant and project developer. On 24 April 2019, the ISA received a proposal from the NTPC for endorsing it to its member countries for the development of solar projects under the ISA’s “Swiss Challenge” program. Broadly, the services that the NTPC proposed were; reaching out to energy ministers, preparing power purchase agreements, detailed project reports, and providing project management consultancy services for projects with capacity more than 100 kW.

NTPC plans to anchor 10,000 MW of solar parks in ISA member countries in the next two years.

Recently, the Republic of Mali announced that it would exempt renewable energy equipment from value-added taxes (VAT), duties, and other taxes to boost the reduction of carbon footprint in the country. Renewable energy equipment will be exempted from all VAT, duties, and taxes payable at the customs cordon with the exceptions of community levy, community solidarity levy, and statistical royalty, the country’s council of ministers noted in their notice.