COTE D’IVORE – Côte d’Ivoire through its Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Renewable Energy, Abdourahmane Cissé has entered into an agreement with Biovea Energy to build the largest biomass power plant in West Africa.

A statement from the ministry revealed that construction of the 129 billion FCFA (about US$218 million) project will commence as from the third quarter of 2020 and it will continue for three years.

Once completed, the power plant will become the largest in the western Africa region and is expected to have a positive impact on around 12,000 planters.

“This is a project that is very important with about 129 billion FCFA to be invested. The price of the energy which will be produced will be 61.99 FCFA  perKWh,” Abdourahmane Cissé said.

“It will enable Côte d’Ivoire to achieve its renewable energy development goals,” he added.

On his part, the General Manager of Biovea Energy, Raphael Ruat said, “The construction of this biomass-based power plant will power the equivalent of 315,000 homes, or more than 1,700,000 people.”

“But beyond a project, Biovea Energy is also a circular energy project with a significant environmental and social impact that is sustainable. This is 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide avoided in 25 years of operation,” he added.

Côte d’Ivoire’s climate commitment, formally known as its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the global Paris Agreement, pledges to reduce its emissions by 28 percent, in part by achieving 42 percent renewable-energy (RE) generation by 2030.

To achieve this, the county has created the Côte d’Ivoire country profile on the Africa Energy Portal to provide investors in renewable energy with the specific types of information needed ranged from financing opportunities to FAQs on whether they have feed-in tariffs or are part of a regional power pool.

Today, Côte d’Ivoire is closer to achieving their RE goals than ever before thanks to the implementation of the Africa Energy Portal.

Within one year, stakeholders have convened from across the energy spectrum, self-organized into a new RE industry association, continued to voice the need for private sector investment at the AEMP, and launched a vital information one-stop shop with the AEP.