French firm Urbasolar is to build a 30MW solar project in the Balé province of Burkina Faso.
The Pâ solar power plant, set to power around 150,000 people, was launched 10 months after the signing of its implementation contract and it will require an investment of around US$35 million.
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The project holds a power purchase agreement with national utility Sonabel with a tariff of CFA 48 (US$0.081)/kWh, which is significantly lower than the CFA 130 (US$0.22)/kWh tariff of thermal electricity.
Christophe Dabiré, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, said: “We are evolving to ensure energy security for our country and I think that economic development goes by road and by energy.”
Burkina Faso's energy policy targets 200MW of solar capacity by 2021.
Last December, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said it would lend the government of Burkina Faso €48.82 million (US$54.04 million) to develop 208MW of PV across four separate 52MW projects under the bank's Desert to Power initiative
Amea kicks off 50MW in Togo
Elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Faure E. Gnassingbe, president of Togo, took to Twitter to announce breaking ground on a 50MW solar project in Blitta, Central Togo, by Dubai-based developer AMEA Power.
The president said the Mohamed Bin Zayed solar photovoltaic (PV) project is in line with the National Development Plan, which aims to increase the contribution of renewable energies in Togo's energy mix and to ensure total energy independence by 2030. Local reports claimed that this is the largest solar project currently under construction in West Africa.
Amea Power signed a PPA with Togo’s national utility company, La Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET), last November.