BURKINA FASO – French electricity company, Engie has won a contract to construct two solar power plants with a total capacity of 30MWp in Burkina Faso.

The two projects which are located in the Burkina Faaso towns of Koudougou and Kaya will be constructed at a cost of US$73.89 million.

The town of Koudougou, in the province of Boulkiemdé will have solar power stations of 20-Megawatt peak (MWp) while Kaya, in the province of Sanmatenga will have solar power stations of 10MWp.

According to a report by Afrik21 the projects are part of the World Bank supported Power Sector Support Project (Pasel).

The government of Burkina Faso is stepping up initiatives to increase the country’s electricity production.

Earlier this month, the National Electricity Company of Burkina Faso (Sonabel) launched a call for tenders for the construction of four 9 MWp photovoltaic solar power plants.

Two of the solar power projects will be located in a town known as Dori and are expected to generated a total power capacity of 6 MW.

The other two will have installed capacities of 2MW and 1MW and will be located in the towns of Diapaga and Gaoua, respectively.

In addition to the construction of the solar power plants, the Burkinabe government plans to strengthen three inter-urban links through electricity distribution stations.

According to Sonabel, a 225-kV transmission line will be built between the city of Pâ and the city of Diébougou, over a distance of about 83 km.

A second 225 kV transmission line will be built to link the town of Ziniaré and Kaya, over a distance of 60 km.

The final 90 kV transmission line will link Wona and Dédougou, over a distance of 60 km, crowning the project which will have a total of 230km of newly transmission lines.

Sonabel explains that, once the work is completed, the various facilities will make it possible to inject 48.86 GWh into its electricity network, thereby reducing the electricity deficit of Burkinabe citizens by 2.5%.

The transmission lines and associated substations will be built by Engie’s subsidiary Ineo Energy & Systems and five other companies, including Mohan Energy Corporation Pvt. and Unitech Power Transmission. Ltd.

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