During his official visit to Niger, Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, travelled to Gorou Banda on Wednesday 5 July 2023 with President Mohamed Bazoum for the inauguration of the country’s largest photovoltaic solar power plant. The park is equipped with 55,776 solar panels installed on a 27-hectare site located just 12 km from the capital Niamey.
The Gorou Banda PV solar power plant is capable of supplying 500 000 households in Niger © AFD in Niger
The plant will be operational from 25 August 2023, the planned date for connection to Niger’s national electricity grid. “This power station is designed to reduce load shedding in the Niamey region. We are committed to projects, some of them even more ambitious, to reduce load shedding and meet the challenge of industrialisation”, said President Bazoum at the inauguration ceremony for the Gorou Banda solar power plant.
An investment of €30 million
According to the Niger government, the solar farm will be capable of producing 53 GWh of electricity per year, enough to supply 70,000 homes, or 500,000 people in the capital Niamey. The plant is also expected to prevent the emission of 23,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. The project, which is now nearing completion, was carried out over the past two years by a consortium of French companies formed by Sogemcom and Akuo Energy.
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The work was supervised by Société nigérienne d’électricité (NIGELEC), assisted by the consulting engineer, the Artelia/Depe consortium. Gorou Banda is also intended to reduce Niger’s energy dependence on its neighbours, because “for the Niamey region, we import around 70 MW from Nigeria”, said President Mohamed Bazoum at the inauguration ceremony for the new solar farm.
The project, which is now in its operational phase, required an investment of 20 billion CFA francs, or just over 30 million euros, of which the EU provided 5.3 million euros. The French Development Agency (AFD) has allocated €23.6 million in the form of a loan. The State of Niger has contributed one billion CFA francs, or just over €1.5 million.
Jean Marie Takouleu