Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso launched Thursday the construction of a 33-megawatt solar power plant, the largest in the Sahel, in this sunny country in West Africa, where electricity remains a scarce commodity for more than 80% of population.
In total, Burkina Faso intends to inject a hundred megawatts of solar energy into its electricity grid over the next five years, half of what it currently produces (around 200 MW).
The power plant in the village of Zagtouli, near the capital Ouagadougou, will require the installation of 129,600 solar panels spread over a total area of 60 hectares and will thus be the largest ever built in the Sahel when it was commissioned in 14 months, according to the Burkinabè authorities.
The Zagtouli solar power plant paves the way for the development of renewable energies in Burkina Faso, which is one of the commitments made at COP 21 in Paris (…), said the Minister of Energy, Mines and Quarries, Alpha Oumar Dissa.
CEGELEC, a subsidiary of the French group Vinci, is in charge of the construction of this solar power plant at a cost of 47.5 million euros, including 25 million euros in donations from the European Union and a loan of 22.5 million euros from the French Development Agency (AFD).
The German company Solarworld will supply the solar plates, said the head of European Union cooperation in Ouagadougou, Thierry Barbe.
Source: http://www.dakar-echo.com/burkina-faso-lance-construction-de-plus-grosse-centrale-solaire-sahel/
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