Ivory Coast bets on photo voltaic in clear power drive – Uplaza

The solar beats down from a cloudless sky in town of Boundiali, the place Ivory Coast’s first solar energy plant embodies the drive to embrace clear power with out abandoning fossil fuels.

Not like the wetter, cloudier south, the local weather in northern Ivory Coast bordering Burkina Faso and Mali is sizzling and dry for round eight months of the 12 months.

“Irradiance is very high” within the area, plant engineer Franck Alain Yayo informed AFP, referring to the depth of the Solar’s power.

The Boundiali plant, which opened in June 2023, goals to enhance the electrical energy provide to greater than 430,000 households, the power ministry mentioned.

Though Ivory Coast has about 10 smaller solar energy crops serving villages at a neighborhood stage, Boundiali is the primary on the nationwide grid.

The nation, which already exports about 10 % of its electrical energy to neighbors, goals to generate almost half of its power from renewable sources by 2030.

The Worldwide Power Company (IEA) estimates that half the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa has no entry to electrical energy.

And but, it added in a current report: “Africa is home to 60 percent of the best solar resources globally, yet only one percent of installed solar PV (photovoltaic) capacity.”

Whereas the continent has doubled its capability to supply clear power within the final 10 years, African renewables nonetheless account for simply two % of worldwide capability.

Name for personal funding

The northern Ivorian city has some 68,000 photo voltaic panels purchased from China specified by rows throughout 36 hectares (89 acres).

The panels convert daylight, not warmth, into electrical energy.

By the top of subsequent 12 months, the goal is to have twice as many panels to achieve a manufacturing capability of 80 MWp (Megawatt peak, a measure of the utmost potential output).

That will avoid wasting 60,000 tonnes of CO₂ equal per 12 months, say the authorities.

The 75.6-million-euro ($82.1-million) price of constructing the solar energy station was financed by Ivory Coast, a German mortgage and a European Union grant.

“This is the result of the EU’s long-standing commitment to the renewable energy sector, with almost 140 million euros since 2017,” EU ambassador to Ivory Coast Francesca Di Mauro informed AFP.

Nevertheless, worldwide public funding to assist sub-Saharan Africa’s transition in the direction of clear power won’t be sufficient.

Final 12 months, the IEA known as for personal funding to be stepped as much as account for 60 % of financing.

Solar energy is at present a small a part of the Ivorian power combine—the Boundiali plant contributes only one % of nationwide manufacturing.

Practically 70 % of the nation’s electrical energy comes from gas-fired thermal energy crops, whereas hydroelectric energy stations account for the remainder, all situated within the south.

By 2030, Ivory Coast has pledged to extend its share of renewable power to 45 %, together with 9 % photo voltaic, and to scale back its greenhouse gasoline emissions by 30 %.

Fossil fuels nevertheless nonetheless play a key function.

New oil, gasoline discoveries

The West African nation lately found two big oil and pure gasoline deposits.

Considered one of them, the Calao area, “will eventually meet the country’s electricity production needs”, mentioned Power Minister Sangafowa Coulibaly.

It might additionally assist cut back electrical energy payments, which might be a welcome aid to house owners after costs rose by 10 % in January.

“Every day the sun shines on our heads” the price of manufacturing is “very low”, plant engineer Yayo mentioned.

Yayo, who discovered his expertise in Burkina Faso, regretted that his nation had neither the know-how nor the experience to coach folks.

Ivory Coast’s state-run firm CI-Energies, which handles Boundiali plant’s infrastructure, briefly subcontracts to French civil engineering agency Eiffage.

It’s Eiffage which is coaching most of the workers, most of them native folks.

On this area of round 92,000 folks, some 350 have been employed since building of the plant started.

Most have been taken on with short-term contracts to put in photo voltaic panels or perform upkeep.

Amongst them was Oumar Konate, who beforehand labored in farming in addition to doing odd jobs on the town.

Employment within the rural space was laborious to come back by, he mentioned. “I prefer to work here. The pay is better. I can feed my family.”

© 2024 AFP