Called Mohamed Bin Zayed, the country's largest photovoltaic power plant should see its first phase, with a capacity of 30 MW, operational in March.

The kick-off for the construction of the Blitta solar park, located 270 kilometers north of Lomé, in the center of the country, was very officially given on February 3, 2020, in the presence of the Head of State, Faure Gnassingbé, and Hussain al-Nowais, the founding president of the Emirati group Amea Power (owned by the family holding company AlNowais Investments), which specializes in the construction, maintenance and operation of energy infrastructure.

The gigantic Mohamed Bin Zayed solar park (named after the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi) will produce more than 90.255 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year and will have a total capacity of 50 megawatts (MW).

The installation will be done in two steps. The delivery of the first phase of the project (for a capacity of 30 MW), scheduled for June 2020, was delayed by the health crisis, but it should take place during the first quarter of 2021 (70% of the works were completed). completed in mid-December 2020). The second phase concerns an additional capacity of 20 MW and includes connection to the national electricity grid. Once fully operational, the Blitta solar park will enable 600,000 households and 700 SMEs to have access to electricity at an affordable cost, and it will increase the country's production capacity to 265 MW.

Three goals for 2030

Carried out as part of a public-private partnership and led by Amea Togo Solar, a local subsidiary of the Dubai group, this project represents an investment of 21.5 billion CFA francs (nearly 32.8 million euros), financed 25% by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, to which is added a loan of 7 billion CFA francs from the West African Development Bank (Boad) to the Togolese State. The park will be managed and operated for a period of twenty-five years by Amea, and the electricity produced will be marketed by the Electric Power Company of Togo (CEET).

Access to electricity is one of the major pillars for the achievement of the PND

The Blitta solar park is part of the national energy strategy and has three objectives for 2030: to allow 100% of Togolese to have access to quality energy services at an affordable cost, to achieve the energy independence and substantially increase the share of renewable energies in the national energy mix – all in line with the National Development Plan.

"Access to electricity is one of the major pillars that will enable Togo to implement its National Development Plan," said Abbas Aboulaye, Director General of Energy.

And to achieve universal coverage, the country is considering a smart combination of extending the conventional grid and deploying off-grid technologies.