INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology
African Development Bank
approves loan to increase
solar generation
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T
he Board of Directors of the African
Development Bank have approved
a €48.82 million loan to the
Government of Burkina Faso for the Yeleen
solar plant, intended to boost national
power supply.
Yeleen, which is to be implemented under
the Bank’s Desert to Power (DTP) Initiative,
and will span a period of five years from
2020–2024, is the second project under
the DTP initiative in Burkina Faso. The
total project cost is estimated at €136.69
million. The rest of the financing for
Yeleen is provided by Agence Française de
Développement (AFD), the European Union
(EU) and Société Nationale d’électricité du
Burkina Faso (SONABEL).
The electricity access rate in Burkina Faso
is one of the lowest in Africa at around
21% at national level in 2018. Upon
completion, the project will increase
and diversify electricity supply through
the construction of four new 52 MWc
photovoltaic (PV) plants and extend power
distribution networks to connect 30,000
new households, or about 200,000 people.
It will also contribute to the avoidance of
48,000 tCO2eq emissions annually.
also added that the approval would further
the Desert to Power Initiative’s momentum
in line with commitments made at the Sahel
G5 Summit on in Ouagadougou.
“With this project, we are making concrete
progress on two of the five priority areas
under the Desert to Power initiative which
include adding new solar generation
capacity and strengthening the transmission
and distribution networks,” said Schroth.
The current project is part of Burkina
Faso’s broader 2025 Solar Programme,
known as ‘Yeleen’ with three components:
Development of photovoltaic plants (PV)
connected to the interconnected national
grid; increase in the electricity distribution
network; and rural electrification by
mini-grids (isolated) and individual solar
systems. The rural electrification Yeleen
rural electrification project, which aims to
increase electricity access in Burkina Faso
by connecting 150,000 households to solar
mini-grids (50,000 household) and through
stand-alone solar kits systems (100,000
households) was approved by the Bank in
December 2018 with joint financing with
EU and GCF.
The project aligns with the bank’s country
strategy paper for Burkina Faso (CSP
2017–2021), its High-5 ‘Light Up and
Power Africa’ initiative, and the Bank’s
Climate Change plan. The Desert to Power
initiative aims to accelerate economic
development by adding solar energy
generation capacity of up to 10 GW by
2025 through a combination of public and
private interventions. n
Wale Shonibare, the bank’s Acting Vice-
President for Power, Energy, Climate
Change and Green Growth said: “This
project will augment the Bank’s efforts to
ensure inclusive access to energy through
improvements in rural electrification,
regional interconnections and energy sector
reforms. Notably, it will increase Burkina
Faso’s generation capacity by 15%, which
will greatly help to reduce Burkina Faso’s
reliance on fossil fuel imports.”
Dr Daniel Schroth, the bank’s Acting Director
for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency,
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