AMEA Power has secured the first solar power purchase agreement (PPA) in Ivory Coast in what is a growing presence in West Africa.

The 50MW solar PV project with an investment of around $60 million will be located at the city of Bondoukou in the northeastern region of Gontougo, about 420 km northeast of Abidjan.

The project is being developed under a Build-Own-Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model and should generate more than 85GWh of clean energy per year, enough to power around 350,000 people.

The offtaker for the project will be Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité, which is responsible for the electrical network throughout the country.

Hussain Al Nowais, chairman of AMEA Power, said that the company is proud to be supporting Ivory Coast meet its clean energy ambitions and that the region has a great amount of untapped potential for renewable energy and green hydrogen.

“The country is undergoing an economic and social transition, which will be driven by the development of clean energy and is reflective of the broader continent.”

The Bondoukou project, on which a concession agreement and 25-year PPA was signed with the Ivory Coast government, is AMEA Power’s first in the country.

Other solar, wind and green hydrogen projects are in various stages of development in Burkina Faso, Mali, Morocco and Togo, with the extension of the Mohammed Bin Zayed solar plant from 50MW to 70MW and addition of battery storage in the latter country set to make it the largest solar generator in West Africa.

The Ivory Coast government has targeted raising the share of renewable energy in the country’s electricity generation mix to 42% by 2030.

In 2020 the share was 32%, all hydropower, IRENA data indicates.