The two 30 MW projects will be the first developed in Senegal under the Scaling Solar program overseen by the World Bank, which operates the IFC as its private sector investment arm. With the signing of this funding, Senegal is once again demonstrating that the Scaling Solar approach is achieving record prices by attracting world-leading players while also enabling competition. The Scaling Solar initiative aims to create viable markets for solar power in the developing world with the IFC as principal transaction advisor. Through a tender for both plants finalized by Senegal’s Electricity Sector Regulatory Commission (CRSE) in April 2018, Engie and Meridiam secured long-term power purchase agreements with national power utility Société d’Electricité du Sénégal.
The first 30 MW project, planned by the French consortium in Kahone in western Senegal, will sell power for €0.03801/kWh and the second plant – in Touba in central Senegal – has secured a tariff of €0.03983. The CRSE pre-qualified 13 of the 14 bids submitted for the tender but shortlisted only eight developers for the final phase of the procurement. The country’s operational large scale solar assets include the aforementioned Senergy and Ten Merina plants, which were developed by Engie and each have a 30 MW capacity. The former is in Santhiou Mékhé, near Méouane northeast of Dakar. Ten Merina was built in Merina Dakhar, 120km northeast of the capital and was commissioned in January last year. Both plants were constructed by Engie unit Solairedirect. Those utility scale projects are not the only solar installations making headlines in Senegal as off-grid PV projects are also being developed in more remote areas. Senegal has around 650 MW of total installed power generation capacity and is planning to deploy 200 MW of solar up to next year.