The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is awarding a grant of $1 million (more than 616 million CFA francs) to Ivory Coast, as part of the Power Africa initiative. The West African country will use this funding to implement the Boundiali biomass power plant project.
The $1 million grant is part of $4 million in funding from the United States of America to support the energy transition in Africa. The funds have been allocated to Ivory Coast through the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), as part of the US Power Africa initiative, which supports the public and private sectors in the production of electricity. The funding is being announced at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, held from 13-15 December 2022 in Washington DC.
Ivory Coast will use the grant for a project to convert cotton crop waste into biomass in the northern town of Boundiali.
Reducing the carbon footprint
Once operational, the biomass plant will inject 25 MW of electricity into Ivory Coast’s national grid. The completion of this project will also increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources, with a significant reduction in the carbon footprint.
The Ivorian government wants to increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity mix to 42% by 2030 from the current 30%, according to its National Action Plan for Renewable Energy (PANER), which has been underway since 2016.
A potential of around 12 million tonnes per year
As part of the PANER, several biomass power plants will be built in the coming years. These include the Aboisso biomass plant, on which work was launched in March 2022 by Biovea Energies with an expected capacity of 46 MW. Other biomass plants are in the pipeline, using cocoa crop residues in Abidjan (160 MW), Gagnoa (80 MW), Yamoussoukro (80 MW) and rubber in San-Pedro (60 MW). As well as in Dabou (10 MW), Divo (10 MW), Grabo (20 MW), Yakro (80 MW).
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In the report “Study of the Biomass Potential in Ivory Coast”, published in June 2022, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) indicates that the country’s potential is estimated at almost 12,000,000 tonnes per year and its capacity to exploit this energy. This resource is based on cashew nuts (shells, cashew apples), cassava (peelings), cocoa (pods, cocoa bean shells), palm oil (palm leaves) and rubber (logging residues, rubber seeds).
Inès Magoum
