Developing renewable energy projects in Africa
becoming 'easy', claims IPP
Oct 28, 2014 - Monique Avila - pv-tech.org
The president and chief executive officer of Windiga
Energy, a Canadian-based independent power producer,
said it is now easy to develop renewable energy projects,
like PV, in Africa.
Benoit La Salle’s comment follows Windiga’s
announcement last week that the company had agreed
a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the National
Electricity Company of Burkina Faso (SONABEL) for
a 20MW photovoltaic plant in Zina, Mouhoun in the
West African country Burkina Faso.
The plant is on track to be the largest solar power
plant in sub-Saharan Africa and to produce an estimated
34GWh of energy annually, fulfilling 10% of Burkina
Faso’s energy needs. La Salle said that with
government's keen to procure renewable energy, many
of the hurdles to development have been removed.
“It is extremely easy,” La Salle told
PV tech. “Now that the governments have all
included renewable energy in their strategies.”
“The utilisation of renewables in the portfolio
of the projects in Africa is now welcome and it is
extremely easy,” reiterated La Salle.
La Salle also told PV tech the greatest threat to
Windiga’s projects in Africa is not traditional
energy providers.
“Time. As soon as you’re an independent
power producer, you’re biggest enemy is time.”
He also confirmed that Windiga had hired Siemens
German as its engineering, procurement, and construction
contractor. La Salle also listed the African Development
Bank and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund
as the project’s financial partners and said
construction will commence following financial close
with those partners. The total debt facility of the
project is US$40 million and La Salle said he expects
to close the deal on 1 February, 2015 and begin the
14-month project.
Last week Windiga also announced several other projects
in Africa that include two separate waste-to-energy
plants in the African province of Mauritania, and
a 20-year PPA for the construction and operation
of a 20MW solar power plant in northern Tilli.
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