The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso has inaugurated the country’s first solar panel production plant in the industrial zone of Kossodo.

Owned by Faso Energy, the plant can produce 60 to 100 panels with a capacity of 260 to 330 watts which gives the plant an annual energy production capacity of 80 to 120M MW. The plant cost about 3 billion CFA francs ($5.3 million).

The production is intended for the Burkinabé and the African market. According to Faso Energy, the plant has created 170 direct jobs and 1,200 indirect jobs, and the panels used are approved by the quality control body of the Ministry of Energy, the National Agency for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency.

The technical manager of Faso Energy, Sébastien Ouédraogo said, “We manufacture these panels on site. We can see the production line inside the factory, the operators, the technicians who are there to make the panels. These panels meet European standards and are manufactured in Burkina Faso. We use the latest panel technology that we find on the market with a technology of 5 bus bars on the cells.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, 24th September 2020, the government of Tunisia, through the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energies, issued a fourth tender for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects.

As part of the country’s renewable procurement programme, the government seeks to award 70 MW capacity. The tender covers the construction of six solar firms of 10 MW each and 10 smaller plants with individual capacities of up to 1MW.

Interested parties will be able to submit their bids by February 9 2021. Selected bidders will be awarded long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with state-owned Societe Tunisienne de l’electricite et du gaz (STEG).

To achieve its goal of adding 1 GW of renewables in 2017-2020 and 1.25 GW in 2021-2030, Tunisia is organising a series of tenders. In December 2019, 500 MW of solar projects were awarded to several bidders.