Burkina Faso to get 30 MW solar plant for national grid
Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou: The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund will finance 80 % of the construction of Urbasolar SAS’ new solar plant.
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Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou: The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund will finance 80 % of the construction of Urbasolar SAS’ new solar plant.
The plant will be located near the town of Pâ, 250 km south-east of Ouagadougou and it will supply electricity to Burkina Faso’s power utility, La Société National D’électricité Du Burkina Faso (SONABEL).
The ground-mounted photovoltaic power plant will have a peak power of 29,967.84 kWp. The plant will be connected to the grid via a 2 km cable to a nearby substation.
Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) is the sole lender to the project and will provide $35.5 M (€29 M) of the estimated $42.2 M (€35,4 M) development close.
Paromita Chatterjee, investment director at EIAF, commented: “Harnessing Burkina Faso’s sunshine to improve its future prospects will bring many benefits to the country and make an important contribution to fighting global warming. This project is a perfect example of how EAIF’s public-private partnership model can have lasting economic, social and environmental impacts while mobilising private capital and enterprise to create new infrastructure.”
Urbasolar was selected as the developer following a competitive tender process run by SONABEL. They will build and operate the plant and construction is forecast to be completed within 18 months.
Commenting on the project, Arnaud Mine, president of Urbasolar said: “As a European expert in solar power, the Urbasolar group is conscious of its role in developing this energy source in Africa, notably in Burkina Faso, where we already operate. It is Urbasolar’s conviction that the solar power sector offers solutions to numerous economic, environmental and social issues.”
Source: Esi Africa