Côte d'Ivoire starts construction on first biomass power plant

Landesbergen biomass power plant, Germany. Source: Statkraft/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The plant will cost over €200m and is expected to be operational in three years, Raphael Ruat, managing director of Biovea Energie, told Reuters.

Biovea is owned by EDF, Côte d'Ivoire's agro-industrial group SIFCA and French firm Meridiam. The project is being financed by Proparco and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund.

The plant includes two 23MW turbines that will run on around 520,000 tonnes of palm oil waste bought from farmers in Ayebo, about 100km east of Abidjan.

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Potential to boost farmers' revenues

The partners have said that the project could boost revenues of nearly 12,000 farmers by around 20% annually.

"It's a project that responds to the needs of Ivory Coast, which is facing a growing demand in terms of energy," said Ruat.

Côte d'Ivoire's power capacity is about 2,369MW, mainly from oil and gas, and the country hopes to increase that to 4,000MW by 2025. The country also exports power to several of its West African neighbours.