ST. PETERSBURG, July 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Unigreen Energy company intends to put into operation a solar energy park in South Africa in the first quarter of 2024, the company’s CEO Igor Shakhray said on Friday. The company expects to build other facilities in the country.

"In the first quarter we will launch a solar park. We hope that we will have other facilities in South Africa as well," he said during the Russia-Africa summit.

The capacity of the solar energy park will be 115 MW, the head of the company specified.

He also noted that Unigreen Energy has the competence to build factories for the production of equipment for solar energy. "In fact, we can build competitive production in a short time," said the head of Unigreen Energy.

Shakhray added that one of the restrictions for working in African countries is funding.

"We do not work with the BRICS bank at all. We hope that with the new president of the bank we will be able to do this, because it is not easy to get funding from projects in Africa. give investors. This suggests that a system of work on guarantees - sovereign, corporate or otherwise - is needed in order to scale solar energy projects," he said.

The second Russia-Africa Summit, along with an economic and humanitarian forum, is taking place in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on July 27-28. Similar to the first such event in 2019, the summit is being held under the rubric "For Peace, Security and Development." The event is being organized by the Roscongress Foundation. TASS, which is the official information partner and photo-hosting agency of the summit and forum, is also hosting the second Russia-Africa Media Forum.