Description
Project Name: Matebe
Project Owner: Virunga Alliance
Standard: Verra VCS
Project ID: 1716
Since 2016, the Matebe hydropower project has been a cornerstone of the Virunga Alliance, igniting a green economy in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo. By replacing polluting, costly fossil fuel generators with clean, renewable energy, Matebe ensures the long-term sustainability of the Virunga National Park and its surrounding communities.
As part of the Virunga Alliance’s ambitious plan to provide energy access to 4 million people in and around Virunga National Park, Matebe is already transforming the region. The project delivers clean electricity to 30,000 beneficiaries, including 300+ small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and critical public services like schools and health clinics. By powering businesses and essential facilities, Matebe drives economic growth, enhances education, and improves healthcare, fostering a brighter, more resilient future for remote communities.
Matebe’s small run-of-river hydropower system is a model of environmental stewardship. Unlike traditional dams, it requires no reservoir, minimizing ecological disruption while harnessing the park’s abundant hydrological resources. This sustainable technology stabilizes the grid and operates off-grid to serve isolated rural areas, delivering reliable energy where it’s needed most.
The Virunga Alliance isn’t stopping here. With Matebe, the goal is bold: scale up to 100 MW of clean energy by 2040 through a network of hydroelectric plants, including the under-construction 13 MW Rwanguba station. The Alliance is building a future where energy poverty is history, and Virunga stands as a global beacon of sustainable development.
Impact
The country has an enormous development potential thanks to a very abundant hydrological resource.
The project is taking full advantage of this potential by using it instead of going for a more complex source of energy production.
The plant was built through advanced technology transfer from industrialized countries.
The project was constructed with modern technology which are of a higher standard than many power plants in Africa
DRC is a country in which less than 1% of the population has access to electricity in rural area.
The project is allowing 30,000 people to get access to an affordable and renewable energy.
Virunga Alliance used the local workforce to build the plant.
Job creation is boosting the economical activity of the region and is one of the best vector of development and pacification in the region.
CSR Action
Virunga supports the entrepreneurship by helping them to access financial resources that banks usually refuse them. A beneficiary can take out a loan which they reimburse with each purchase of electricity through an increased price per kWh.
Virunga provides free electricity to 40 public institutions and lighting in nearby villages. This lighting transforms social life as night time activities develop, whereas previously, few left their homes after dark for personal security fears. As of the end of 2019, over 300,000 people have benefited from these improvements.
Virunga supports the renovation of schools and hospitals, this significantly increases the quality of healthcare around the park, largely as a result of the ability to conserve medicines via refrigeration.
The mountain gorilla population is not only recovering but growing. In 2019, thanks to the exhaustive work of rangers over many years in the three countries that lie across the Virunga massif (DRC, Rwanda and Uganda), the species was downgraded from “critically endangered” to “endangered” for the first time since 1994.
In 2019, around 7000 patrols were conducted by park rangers, which represents as increase of 11% from 2018. They covered around 42% of the territory of the park. Foot patrols alone covered over 45,000km in 2019.
Based on the experience and progress made over the past ten years, it is anticipated that its “green economy model” – sustainable economic development – could contribute $350 million of additional GDP by 2030.
