EU lender the European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced plans to finance the expansion of a grid scale solar plant in Burkina Faso and to deepen renewable energy work with the Croatian government. The EIB will provide a €38.5 million long-term loan towards the cost of a €70.5 million project to expand the generation capacity of the first solar plant installed by Burkina Faso’s national electric utility, from its current 37 MW to 50 MW. The solar farm was built by Société Nationale d’électricité du Burkina Faso (Sonabel).
Burkina Faso depends in part on power imports from southwestern neighbor Côte d’Ivoire. The EIB also announced the signing of a memorandum to work more closely with Croatia’s Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development on matters including clean energy generation and transmission infrastructure, green mobility and moving to a circular economy. The latest developments come after the EU lender on Monday said it had signed a €100 million R&D finance agreement with Spanish electric company Iberdrola which will help drive innovation related to solar power plants, e-mobility and green hydrogen.