Francis Tukei Okurut
Co-Founder and CEO
Utility-scale solar and storage in Zambia, developed and ready to build.
Finnish diligence, Zambian ground truth. Projects made ready to build: measured, permitted, connectable.
About
A Finnish project developer building utility-scale solar in the Market.
Renew Dev Oy develops utility-scale solar and battery storage in Zambia. Our team is Finnish and Zambian, working across project development, structuring and delivery. We take each project from a piece of land through to a ready-to-build standard, transfer it to a long-term owner, and move on to the next. Each project is held in its own project company.
What we do
Utility-scale solar, delivered end to end.
We originate greenfield solar and battery storage projects in Zambia and develop them to the point of transfer. Land rights, environmental approvals, grid connection, and a bankable offtake agreement: the four elements a buyer needs before construction capital will move.
Project development
Development is the work of assembling a bankable package. We secure land rights, obtain the permits and environmental approvals, negotiate grid connection, and put a bankable offtake agreement in place — the four elements a buyer needs before construction capital will move.
Structuring for transfer
Agreements assignable from the outset, a continuously maintained data room, and environmental attribute ownership papered from day one. Developed to the standard Nordic institutional and development finance investors require.
Build-to-sell exit
Transfer to the buyer at a ready-to-build standard, before financial close. Construction and operation sit with them.
How we develop
A disciplined five-stage pipeline.
- 01
Site and land rights
Identifying sites with the irradiance, terrain and grid proximity to work, and securing the land rights that make everything after it possible.
- 02
Measurement and feasibility
On-site measurement and yield modelling, taken through ministerial feasibility approval.
- 03
Grid connection
Grid impact study and connection agreement, sized for a hybrid solar and storage export profile.
- 04
Permitting and environmental approval
Environmental and social impact assessment through ZEMA approval, then the construction permit from the Energy Regulation Board.
- 05
Offtake and transfer
A bankable offtake agreement in place, and the project transferred to its buyer at a ready-to-build standard.
Financial close and construction sit with the buyer. Our work ends where theirs begins.
For acquirers
For acquirers
We build development packages designed for transfer. Agreements are assignable from the outset, data rooms are maintained continuously rather than assembled at the last moment, and environmental attribute ownership is papered from day one. Projects are developed to a ready-to-build standard and sold before financial close.
Sites are designed to accommodate battery storage, with grid connection, land area, and environmental scope specified for a hybrid export profile from the start rather than retrofitted later. Offtake routes include both utility and market-based structures, including sales into the Southern African Power Pool.
Acquisition enquiries: info@renewdev.fi
Sustainability
Nordic standards applied locally.
We develop every project against a full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment aligned with IFC Performance Standards. Land access is negotiated openly, and community benefit is designed into the project economics from day one.
Every project is developed Article 6-ready, with the carbon pathway prepared under Zambia's Green Economy and Climate Change Act.
Funded decommissioning and module recycling are planned from the outset. No modules to landfill at end of life.
Market context
Why Zambia, why solar, why now
In 2024 the worst drought in decades drew down the Kariba reservoir and made visible a risk that had been there all along: more than four fifths of Zambia's electricity came from water. When the water fell, load shedding stretched into double-digit hours a day, and the cost was carried by households, mines and businesses alike.
The response has been structural rather than temporary. Zambia's Electricity Act and Energy Regulation Act opened generation to independent power producers, the Energy Regulation Board built the licensing and tariff frameworks that make private investment legible, and the 2024 Open Access Regulations gave third parties the right to wheel power across the transmission network. That framework is what turns solar from a good idea into a financeable asset — and it was put in place by Zambian institutions, deliberately.
Zambia's power market is diversifying.
Zambia has the irradiance, the regulatory framework, and the demand. What projects need is to arrive at the point where construction capital can move.
14,000 MW
Signed generation capacity across Zambia's IPP pipeline
4,000 MW
Installed grid-connected generation today
Approximately 80%
Share of grid capacity historically from hydropower
Insights
Renew Dev Oy on LinkedIn
Strengthening Partnerships for Zambia's Energy Future
24.07.2026
Embassy of Finland in Lusaka
Embassy of Finland in Lusaka meets Renew Dev Oy Ltd
24.07.2026
Our team
Dr Anita Kalumbi Ramiro
Co-Founder and Zambia Country Lead
Nadia Leiva
Communication Manager
Contact
For investment, partnership and development enquiries, please reach out directly.
Renew Dev Oy Ltd
- info@renewdev.fi
- Phone
- +358 45 869 3510
- Location
- Turku, Finland