A solar carport claimed to be the largest in Africa has officially been opened.

Located at Garden City Mall in Nairobi, the renewable power generated will be used by the retail tenants for lights and escalators.

The carport, which includes more than 3,300 panels, is expected to produce enough energy to power 550 homes and cut around 18,700 tonnes of carbon emissions over the lifetime of the solar system.

It uses solar hybrid technology, which means the carport generates green power during the day while at night, it can run using a backup diesel generator.

The project was developed by real estate investor Actis in partnership with solar advisory and finance platform SolarAfrica and contractor Solarcentury.

Guy Lawrence, Director at Solarcentury in Kenya said: “Solar is a mature, reliable energy generation technology that can be deployed quickly and at scale. We are seeing more and more businesses in Kenya looking to invest in solar because of the multiple benefits it affords – notably, it enables organisations to take control of their long term energy spend. A system will produce free solar electricity for at least 25 years, the average lifetime of a system.”