- The $1 million grant is part of $4 million in funding from the United States of America to support the energy transition in Africa.
- These include the Aboisso biomass plant, on which work was launched in March 2022 by Biovea Energies with an expected capacity of 46 MW.
The $1 million grant is part of $4 million in funding from the United States of America to support the energy transition in Africa. It has been allocated to Ivory Coast through the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). This is a part of the US Power Africa initiative, which supports the public and private sectors in producing electricity. The funding was announced at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, held from 13-15 December 2022 in Washington, DC.
Ivory Coast will use the grant to convert cotton crop waste into biomass in the northern town of Boundiali. The biomass plant will inject 25 MW of electricity into Ivory Coast’s national grid. This project will also increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources, with a significant reduction in the carbon footprint. The Ivorian government wants to increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity mix to 42% by 2030 from the current 30%.
As part of the PANER, several biomass power plants will be built in the coming years. These include the Aboisso biomass plant, on which work was launched in March 2022 by Biovea Energies with an expected capacity of 46 MW. In addition, other biomass plants are in the pipeline, using cocoa crop residues in Abidjan (160 MW), Gagnoa (80 MW), Yamoussoukro (80 MW) and rubber in San-Pedro (60 MW). As well as in Dabou (10 MW), Divo (10 MW), Grabo (20 MW), and Yakro (80 MW). In the report “Study of the Biomass Potential in Ivory Coast”, published in June 2022, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) indicates that the country’s potential is estimated at almost 12,000,000 tonnes per year and its capacity to exploit this energy. This resource is based on cashew nuts (shells, cashew apples), cassava (peelings), cocoa (pods, cocoa bean shells), palm oil (palm leaves) and rubber (logging residues, rubber seeds).