Ivory Coast Bets On Solar In Clean Energy Drive

Boundiali, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) The sun beats down from a cloudless sky on the town of Boundiali, where Ivory Coast's first solar power plant embodies the drive to embrace clean energy without abandoning fossil fuels.

Unlike the wetter, cloudier south, the climate in northern Ivory Coast bordering Burkina Faso and Mali is hot and dry for around eight months of the year.

"Irradiance is very high" in the region, plant engineer Franck Alain Yayo told AFP, referring to the intensity of the Sun's energy.

The Boundiali plant, which opened in June 2023, aims to improve the electricity supply to more than 430,000 households, the energy ministry said.

Although Ivory Coast has about 10 smaller solar power plants serving villages at a local level, Boundiali is the first on the national grid.

The country, which already exports about 10 percent of its electricity to neighbours, aims to generate nearly half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that half the population of sub-Saharan Africa has no access to electricity.

And yet, it added in a recent report: "Africa is home to 60 percent of the best solar resources globally, yet only one percent of installed solar PV (photovoltaic) capacity."

While the continent has doubled its capacity to produce clean energy in the last 10 years, African renewables still account for just two percent of global capacity.