Burkina Faso installs a new photovoltaic solar power plant at Zina

The Zina solar power plant was recently commissioned in Burkina Faso. The 26.6 MWp facility was financed and built by Emirati company Amea Power.

Burkina Faso's installed electrical capacity has increased by 26.6 MW. This is thanks to a new photovoltaic solar power plant that recently came on line in Zina, a village located in the Mouhoun province. The announcement was made on the LinkedIn social network by Emirati independent power producer (IPP) Amea Power, which built the new power plant as part of a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Burkina Faso government.

The 70-hectare solar park "will supply electricity to over 43,000 people while offsetting 13,200 tonnes of_CO2 per year", says Amea Power. To reach this stage of the project, the company headed by Hussain al-Nowais has contracted debt with the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.

The IFC-Canada Climate Change Program (IFCCCP) has also contributed to the financial closure of the Zina solar project in 2022. The new solar power plant is connected to the grid of Société nationale d'électricité du Burkina Faso (Sonabel) under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

Through the special-purpose company Zina Solaire S.A., Amea Power joins other IPPs with operational solar power plants in Burkina Faso. These include Madagascar's Axian Group, which has just acquired the Nagréongo solar park (30 MWp) from French IPP GreenYellow. Then there's the French company Africa Ren, which operates a 38 MWp photovoltaic plant in Kodéni, near Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second-largest city. With the Zina plant, the West African country now boasts an installed solar capacity of 182.6 MWp.

Source: www.afrik21.africa/