In 2014, Uganda became the first Sub-Saharan African country outside of South Africa to embark on a renewable energy auction programme through competitive bidding: the Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariff (GET FiT) Solar Facility.

The GET FiT Solar Facility helped to cement Uganda’s reputation as one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading destinations for private power investment, and important lessons regarding the design and implementation of renewable energy auctions can be learned from a closer examination of the process.

In this Energy Insight, we discuss some of the issues surrounding the auction design and management, as well as the institutional setup and governance structure implemented. We also highlight lessons learned, in the hope that these might inform future initiatives.