Togo has opened the largest solar plant in West Africa, as part of a campaign to expand electricity access and generate renewable energy in the small coastal country.
Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe stated on Twitter late Tuesday that the 50 megawatt facility in central Togo will offer power to more than 158,000 households and save more than one million tonnes of CO2.
“This project is the fruit of our ambition to bring universal access to electricity and provide clean and renewable energy to all.”
“I am thrilled it was done in record time” (18 months), he added.
AMEA Togo Solar, a subsidiary of Dubai-based AMEA Power, developed the project near Blitta, 267 kilometers (165 miles) north of the capital Lome.
It has 127,344 solar panels that will generate 90.255 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity per year.
The project, named after Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, got financing from the West African Development Bank and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development totaling more than 35 billion CFA francs ($63.7 million).
By the end of the year, an additional 20 MW of capacity will be added to the same location. For the next 25 years, AMEA Togo Solar will be allowed to exploit the plant.
Togo, which imports over half of its energy from Nigeria and Ghana, is relying on solar energy to expand access to electricity for its eight million people.
