Malawi BESS: Landmark battery storage project
The landmark battery storage facility will expand energy access, stabilize Malawi’s electricity grid and unlock 100 MW of renewable energy.
The project, a collaboration between Global Energy Alliance, the national utility ESCOM and the government of Malawi, is set to improve electricity reliability for households, businesses and critical services, while improving the country’s resilience to the impacts of climate change. One of the first of its kind in Africa, it also serves as an early proof point for how grid-scale battery storage can be deployed, financed and operated across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Key project features:
- The first stand alone grid-connected battery storage project in Malawi with a maximum output of 200 MW and a total energy capacity of 40 MWh
- Improves electricity reliability for 2.45 million people
- Reduces carbon emissions by around 10,000 tons a year
- Part of Global Energy Alliance’s Grids of the Future program which harnesses grid digitalization and battery storage to provide affordable and reliable electricity to hundreds of millions of people
- Supports Mission 300, the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank’s effort to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030
- Anchors a learning center that collects, analyzes and shares project data for dissemination across Southern Africa
The challenge in numbers
- Malawi has one of the lowest electrification rates in the South African Development Community region.
- Lack of electricity costs Malawi an estimated $150,000 per day — with roughly half of firms forced to rely on expensive energy from diesel generators to remain operational.
- Electricity demand is projected to surge from around 550 MW in 2025 to over 8,500 MW by 2060.
- In 2022, a cyclone wiped out a third of Malawi’s hydropower capacity — highlighting a major vulnerability of the country’s current energy system.
- Malawi is rapidly scaling up solar power and reducing its dependence on diesel generators. By 2030, the country aims to electrify 70% of the population.
What BESS delivers in Malawi and beyond
Malawi’s electricity grid has long faced systemic challenges, including instability, intentional shutting down of renewable energy sources to prevent grid overload, dependence on climate-vulnerable hydropower and a costly reliance on diesel back-up generation.
The BESS, located in Kanengo, a township north of the capital Lilongwe, directly addresses these challenges by storing electricity when production is high, and releasing it when demand peaks or production drops. The project will unlock 100MW of existing renewable generation capacity, stabilize the national grid and lay the foundation for a cleaner, more resilient energy future.
To ensure lasting impact, the project is accompanied by a Southern Africa BESS Centre of Excellence anchored at Mzuzu University, positioning Malawi as a regional hub for capacity building and technical assistance for BESS in Africa.
