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x A ground-breaking ceremony took place on 26 May at the Iamgold Essakane mine for a new 15MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant owned by Eren Renewable Energy and Africa Energy Management Platform. Made of nearly 130,000 PV panels, the 15MWp plant will be added to the existing 55MW heavy fuel oil plant to create what the developers describe as the largest hybrid PV-diesel plant in the world and one of the largest solar facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Société Nationale d’Electricité du Burkina (Sonabel) invites expressions of interest by 17 April from consultants to assist with the extension and reinforcement of the national grid. The work is to be financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) from funds made available for the Projet d’Extension et de Renforcement des Réseaux Electriques, and is open only to consultants from member countries of the IDB, according to a procurement notice published by Sonabel on 21 March.

Eren Renewable Energy and its partner African Energy Management Platform (AEMP) have given Finland’s Wärtsilä an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the supply of a 15MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in north-eastern Burkina Faso. The solar plant will be built next to an existing 55MW heavy fuel oil-fired power plant also supplied by Wärtsilä and will be controlled and operated in synchronisation, thus forming the largest engine-solar PV hybrid power plant in Africa, Wärtsilä announced on 22 March.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has approved a $1m grant to fund feasibility studies for two 17MW solar photovoltaic plants near Pá and Kodéni. The plants are being developed by Denham Capital’s BioTherm Energy and its partner French firm Canopy, via a project company called Société de Production d’Energie Solaire de Kodéni. The studies will be carried out by United States’ Tetra Tech. The projects will sell power to state utility Sonabel under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Eren Renewable Energy and its partner African Energy Management Platform on 6 March announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement with Iamgold Essakane gold mine to complement its existing diesel power plant with a 15MWp solar farm. The mine is 330km from Ouagadougou in northern Burkina and is not connected to the grid. It is the largest privately held business in the country and produced 400,000 ounces of gold in 2015. The 15MWp solar project, expected to be commissioned by year-end at a cost of $20m, will help decrease the mine’s fuel consumption by approximately 6m litres/yr.

The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Quarries has invited prequalification bids for the development of a 100MW heavy fuel oil-fired thermal power plant in Ouagadougou. Bids are due by 22 December. A private partner is sought to design, finance and construct the project as well as operate and maintain the future plant as a concessionaire without any ownership interests, according to the tender notice issued on 28 November.

The government has received funding of $38.6m for a project to electrify peri-urban areas in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso and plans to offer a number of construction and consultancy contracts. This will include three contracts for the extension and reconstruction of the high- and low-voltage network around Bobo-Dioulasso, and two contracts for similar work in Ouagadougou. Consultants will be sought for studies for the construction work, creation of a network control centre in Ouagadougou, supervision and management of construction work, and for external audit.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering financing a 26.8MWp solar photovoltaic power plant, which would be Burkina Faso’s first independent power producer (IPP) project. The proposed investment includes an A loan of up to €12m ($13.3m) and risk management products (interest and cross currency swaps), according to project documents published on the IFC website on 20 September. In addition, IFC intends to mobilise the remaining balance of the debt required for the project, including a senior concessional loan of up to €10m from IFC as implementing entity of the IFC-Canada Climate Change Programme.

The 20MW Windiga solar scheme is progressing towards financial close during the summer, Windiga Energy president and chief executive Benoit La Salle told African Energy. He said construction was planned to start in Q3 this year. Windiga has been developing the project in Zina, Mouhoun province, since the company was established as part of miner Semafo’s corporate social responsibility policy in 2010. The project suffered some delay as a result of political upheaval in Burkina Faso, but the pace of investment is picking up with BioTherm Energy planning solar plants at Pâ and Bobo-Dioulasso.

Société Nationale d’Electricité du Burkina (Sonabel) is inviting bids for construction work to reinforce and extend the electricity network in northern Ouagadougou. Contracts will be divided into two lots. Lot 1 covers the west of the zone and includes 211km of low-voltage lines and 65.1km of medium-voltage lines. Lot 2, for the eastern half, involves 148km of low-voltage lines and 39.8km of medium-voltage lines. Bids are due by 12 August. Contact: Sonabel, Secrétariat du Département des Marchés, 3ème étage, 55, Avenue de la Nation porte n° 324, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Tel: +226 2530 6100. Fax: +226 2531 0340. Email: [email protected] and [email protected].

BioTherm Energy has partnered French renewables company Canopy to develop and fund two solar photovoltaic projects which it says are close to signing a public-private partnership contract with the government. Johannesburg-based BioTherm and Canopy were awarded two projects under an international tender organised by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Burkina Faso is seeking expressions of interest from consultants to assist with the development of national utility Sonabel’s 2016-2020 strategic plan and to carry out an audit of fuel consumption at Sonabel power plants. The World Bank is funding the consultancy, which aims to address the utility’s financial situation and stabilise its operations; improve system efficiency and reduce losses; optimise investment planning; improve client management and carry out a study of the consumer base; reduce non-technical losses; and improve governance.

Supported by Dutch finance, private developer Fasogaz’s subsidiary Fasobiogaz has installed a 275kW biogas plant in Ouagadougou’s Kossodo industrial area. In a first for Burkina Faso, the unit will initially supply some 4,100 households, and is intended to scale up to 1.4MW capacity by 2017 (supplying up to 22,700 households), according to Fasogaz’s Dutch promoter Gilbert Brenninkmeyer. Feedstock for the 40t/d digester comes from organic waste produced by Société de Gestion de l’Abattoir de Ouagadougou’s slaughterhouse, brewer Brasseries du Burkina, farmers and waste collectors.

Canadian power project developer Windiga Energy expects to reach financial close and begin construction on a 20MW solar power plant by year-end, despite 12 months of political upheaval in the country. Windiga has been developing the project in Zina, Mouhoun province, since the company was established as part of miner Semafo’s corporate social responsibility policy in 2010.Long-time ruler Blaise Compaoré was forced out by popular protests in October 2014. Elections had been planned for October 2015, but the country was pitched into uncertainty following a short-lived coup attempt in September 2015 led by Compaoré ally General Gilbert Diendéré. Diendéré is now a prisoner in Paspanga military camp, and elections are scheduled for 29 November.

The European Commission (EC) has begun disbursements from a €25m ($28m) grant for grid strengthening as part of the 33MW Zagtouli solar photovoltaic power plant project. The grant from the tenth European Development Fund was approved in November 2012, and the financial agreement was signed in April 2013, with Burkinabe mines and energy minister Salif Lamoussa Kaboré and EC development commissioner Andris Piebalgs saying at the signing they hoped the power plant could start up in 2014.