The African Development Bank has approved the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Financing Facility covering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
Through the facility, the Bank will commit up to $379 million in financing and technical assistance over the next seven years. The Desert to Power G5 Financing Facility is meant to help the five countries adopt a low-emissions power generation pathway by using the region’s abundant solar potential.
Dr Kevin Kariuki, AfDB Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth said the innovative blended finance approach of the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Facility will de-risk, and therefore catalyse, private sector investment in solar power generation in the region. “This will lead to transformational energy generation and bridge the energy access deficit in some of Africa’s most fragile countries.”
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The facility will encourage utility-scale solar generation through independent power producers and energy storage solutions. The investment will be backed by a technical assistance component meant to enhance implementation capacity, strengthen the enabling environment for private sector investment and ensure gender and climate mainstreaming.
The aim is for the facility to help create 500MW of additional solar generation capacity which should facilitate electricity access to around 695,000 households. It is expected that about 14,4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent could be avoided over the lifespan of the project.
Desert to Power initiative taking advantage of solar power
The Board of the Green Climate Fund approved $150m in concessional resources in October 2021 to the facility, which is expected to leverage around $437m in additional financing from other development finance institutions, commercial banks and private sector developers. The Global Center on Adaptation will provide technical assistance to strengthen adaptation and resilience measures undertaken in the facility as part of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme in partnership with the AfDB.
Dr Daniel Schroth, AfDB Acting Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: “The facility will also support the integration of larger shares of variable renewables in the region’s power systems, notably through the deployment of innovative battery storage solutions and grid investments.”
The facility will be implemented as part of the broader Desert to Power initiative, one of the AfDB’s flagship programmes. The objective of the initiative is to light up and power the Sahel region by adding 10GW of solar generation capacity and providing electricity to around 250 million people in the 11 Sahelian countries by 2030.
Turning Niger’s solar potential into hydrogen
At the same time as the AfDB approving the G5 Financing Facility, the Government of Niger has signed an agreement with German energy solution provider Emerging Energy Corporation to explore and develop commercial green hydrogen projects in the landlocked West African country.
Emerging Energy Corporation will also invest in projects to decarbonise oil field operations and refineries in Niger through carbon capture technologies. It is envisaged that green hydrogen production in Niger will happen via electrolysis, using renewable power.
As per the agreement, both parties will investigate opportunities to enable demand for the product and also prepare Niger to become a hub for green hydrogen production in the region.
Originally published by Theresa Smith on esi-africa.com
