The Central Africa Republic’s largest large-scale solar PV plant has gone live raising hope for a country that is poorly connected to electricity.
Located near the capital Bangui, the Sakai solar project has an installed capacity of 15 MW and is the country’s first major solar plant.
Sakai photovoltaic power plant, or Solar field as it is called by locals is a Chinese aided project built by China Energy Engineering Group Tianjin Electric Power Construction CO. Ltd (TEPC) and took three years to complete.
Official data show that the power plant successfully meets 30 percent of the city’s demand
Energy Access in the Central African Republic is extremely limited for both electricity and non-solid fuels. Only 14% of the population has access to electricity, mainly in the capital Bangui, while access is almost absent in rural areas, according to government figures.
But CAR has abundant low-cost energy resources, including significant solar potential (5 kWh/m2/day). However, these resources remain underdeveloped, notes World Bank in a report.
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