Côte d’Ivoire gets World Bank support for 60 MW of solar

The African country has joined the World Bank’s Scaling Solar Program. Two PV plants will be located in Touba and Laboa, in the northeast of the country.

Renewable energy has yet to make significant inroads into the country’s power mix.

Image: abdallahh/Flickr

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The government of Côte d’Ivoire and World Bank private sector arm the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have signed an agreement for two large scale solar projects, with a combined generation capacity of 60 MW.

The IFC said in a press release the plants will be developed as public-private partnership projects and will contribute to the country’s plan to deploy 400 MW of solar by 2030. The facilities will be developed under the World Bank’s Scaling Solar program, said the IFC.

“Under the agreement with Côte d’Ivoire, Scaling Solar will support the development, tendering and financing of two utility projects in the country,” read the press release. “[Côte d’Ivoire] has West Africa’s third largest electrical system, with an installed generation capacity of 2,200 MW.”

The Ivorian government released a statement adding the power plants will be located in Touba and Laboa, in the northeast of the country.

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Other utility scale PV projects under development in Côte d’Ivoire include 66 MW and 25 MW facilities in Korhogo, in the northern Poro region and a 37.5 MW project in Boundiali department, in the northwest.

The Ivory Coast has one of the highest access rates to electricity in Africa, at around 62%, and the country exports power to neighbors including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Some 60% of the nation’s power comes from thermal plants and 40% from hydropower.

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