Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Energy has revealed a plan to install eight additional solar parks with a combined capacity of 100 MW in the country.
These projects, the ministry said in an official statement published on its Facebook account, will be developed in seven different regions. Two projects with a capacity of 10 MW and 20 MW, respectively, will be developed in the Centre Region, the most populous and urbanized area of the country, while the remaining six projects will be built in the regions of Sahel (15 MW), Est (10 MW), Boucle du Mouhoun (15 MW), Hauts-Bassins (10 MW), Nord (10 MW), and Cascades (10 MW).
Each of these projects, which will require a surface of between 20 and 60 hectares, will be awarded a declaration of public utility. No more technical or financial details about the projects were provided, nor was it said under which regulatory framework they will be developed.
The solar facilities are expected to improve power supply in all related regions, the Energy Minister of Burkina Faso, Alpha Oumar Dissa said. The country, on the other hand, is resorting to solar and renewables to increase power generation.
Burkina Faso currently heavily relies on fossil fuels for the power supply it is able to cover with domestic power production, which accounts for approximately 80% of total demand. Around 80% of its population is still without connection to the electricity system, however.
The country currently has an operational PV capacity of 33 MW, which is represented by the Zagtouli Solar Power Station, whichwas commissioned in late November. Overall, Burkina Faso has a total power generation capacity of around 250 MW. The country covers around 20% of its demand with power imports from neighbours Ghana, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire.
Overall, Burkina Faso has an annual solar radiation of 19.8 MJ/ m2 per day, while direct sunshine totals over 3,000 hours per year.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.