Finnish company Wartsila is to build a 15MW solar power plant for Essakane Solar in Burkina Faso.
The plant will be built next to a 55MW Wartsila power plant currently running on heavy fuel oil.
The solar plant and the engine power plant will be controlled and operated in synchronization, thus forming the largest engine-solar PV hybrid power plant in Africa, Wartsila said.
The company is providing engineering, procurement and construction services for the solar farm, including the control system for the hybrid plant.
The facility is scheduled to be operational in late 2017.
Essakane Solar, which is 90% owned by independent power producer EREN Renewable Energy and 10% by the African Energy Management Platform (AEMP), will operate the solar plant.
It will sell the electricity to Iamgold’s Essakane gold mine, located 330km northeast of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.
Image: sxc
