BOAD to pump CFA25 billion into the construction of a solar PV plant in Awandjelo, northern Togo

Energy

Wednesday, 15 June 2022 16:09

BOAD to pump CFA25 billion into the construction of a solar PV plant in Awandjelo, northern Togo

(Togo First) - The Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement or BOAD will spend CFA25 billion on the construction of a solar PV plant in Kpalassi, near Awandjelo in the Kara region of Togo. The Bank approved the financing yesterday, June 14, during a board meeting.

This is the first of two major new renewable energy projects that the IFC backs through its Scaling Solar initiative; an initiative that Togo joined in July 2019. The other project, a solar park, should be located in Salimde near Sokodé, in the central region of Togo.

Initially, the IFC’s program aimed to support Togo to develop 90 MWp of solar PV energy, via projects that would be connected to the national grid and financed by private funds. The support was to be in the form of legal, regulatory, and technical analysis.

Regarding Awandjelo’s upcoming plant, it is expected to have a capacity of 42 MWp. According to the BOAD’s board, it will “help diversify the energy mix and reduce energy production costs, as well as improve the living conditions of people living in the concerned areas.”

The BOAD claims that once active, the plant should increase the share of renewables in Togo’s energy mix from 27% now to 40% in 2024, in line with the national strategy which puts this figure at 50% by 2030. Besides, the infrastructure should raise the electrification rate to 75% in 2025, from 59% in 2021.

About three years ago, Togo had almost no real installed renewable energy capacity. Since then, however, the country has launched several clean energy projects to bridge this gap–in rural areas especially, it relies a lot on solar. One of the flagship projects that Lomé undertook in this framework is Blitta’s Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed solar power plant. Built by AMEA Power, an Emirati firm, and inaugurated in 2021, this infrastructure is claimed to be the largest of its kind in Africa. The BOAD also invested in Blitta’s plant–CFA21 billion–alongside the Abu Dhabi Fund.

Adding the money it will pump into Awandjelo’s plant, the BOAD is now Togo’s biggest financial sponsor of renewable energy projects.

While no detail has yet been filtered on the private partner selected to develop, build and operate, for about 25 years, the Awandjelo solar PV plant, it is known that around 20 bidders are pre-qualified to compete for the project. They were picked following a tender issued by the Togolese Agency for Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy (AT2ER) in January 2020.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

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