The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a member of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), is lending Urbasolar SAS 80% of the capital needed for the construction of a 30MW facility to supply the national grid
Paromita Chatterjee, investment director at EAIF’s Managers, Ninety One, said, “Harnessing Burkina Faso’s sunshine to improve its future prospects will bring many benefits to the country and make an important contribution to fighting global warming. This project is a perfect example of how EAIF’s public-private partnership model can have lasting economic, social and environmental impacts while mobilising private capital and enterprise to create new infrastructure.”
Burkina Faso has a population of nearly 20 million people. As 40% of people live below the poverty line, the country has one of the world’s lowest rates of electrification. Because of a shortage of installed energy generation capacity, Burkina Faso needs to import electricity from neighbouring states. The Urbasolar project is one of the first of the new green energy plants, hence around 280MW is expected to be commissioned over the next three years.
Established in France in 2006, Urbasolar has installed over 650 PV plants, and currently operates solar plants of over 900MW providing 20% of the project's capital.
