The African Development Bank has approved a $324 million loan for two renewable energy projects in Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire. The approval supports the bank’s focus on renewable energy in Africa, with the investment expected to contribute to 1.4 gigawatts of clean energy.
Scaling up investments in energy is the African Development Bank Group’s top High 5 priority, in a continent where more than 600 million people do not have access to electricity. The New Deal on Energy for Africa is a partnership-driven effort with the aspirational goal of achieving universal access to energy in Africa by 2025.
For Morocco, the Bank’s commitment of $265 million will help develop two solar power plants (NOORM I and NOORM II) at a total cost of €2.048 billion ($2.41 billion) with a cumulative capacity of 800 megawatts, under a public-private partnership (PPP). The solar plants will be connected to the national grid, and will guarantee electricity supplies to more than 2 million Moroccans (approximately 6 percent of the country’s population) and significantly reduce CO2 emissions. The investment is part of the Bank’s continued support to Morocco’s $3 billion NOOR solar energy program.
The Côte d’Ivoire Singrobo-Ahouaty project involves the design, construction and operation of a 44-MW hydropower plant on the Bandama River. The country’s dynamic economy is exerting pressure on power supply, with demand projected to grow by 8 percent -9 percent annually. To meet rising domestic and regional demand, Côte d’Ivoire intends to significantly raise its generation capacity, including hydropower.
n addition to utility-scale renewable energy generations projects, the Bank’s interventions in 2017 covered all facets of renewable energy:
- Off-grid and mini-grid projects, such as the approval of the second phase of the Green Mini-Grid Market Development Program to address barriers to scaling-up of private sector mini-grids in Africa and the launch of the Off-grid Revolution by mobilizing funding, pushing for regulatory reform, achieving economies of scale, addressing currency risks and convening governments to provide incentives for off-grid.
- Transmission and distribution projects including crucial regional interconnectors that are critical to evacuate power generated from renewable energy.
- Investments in private equity and debt funds, such as the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) for which the Bank approved a $100 million anchor investment to close funding gaps in the small-scale energy infrastructure sector and catalyze growth in last-mile energy access solutions.
