Solar Energy and Access Project

The development objective of the Solar Energy and Access Project for Burkina Faso is to increase access to electricity services in selected rural areas and the availability of solar energy in Burkina Faso by leveraging private finance. The project comprises of three components. The first component, sustainable rural electrification objectives are to: (i) increase access to electricity services in an estimated 300 selected rural localities, to connect about 120,000 households, community infrastructures and micro, small and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs), whilst; and (ii) mobilizing private investments into green and hybrid mini-grid development and operations to provide electricity services where extension of the national network is not economically feasible. It consists of following sub-components: (i) grid densification and network strengthening; (ii) grid extension; (iii) green mini-grids leveraging private investments; (iv) capacity building and technical skills development for women; and (v) consumer education and productive uses of energy. The second component, utility-scale solar with storage and variable renewable energy (VRE) integration objectives are to: (i) enable a sustainable increase of the penetration of VRE into the grid (around 150 MW of public projects) with identified investments and installation of 50 MWh of publicly-owned battery, and (ii) enable the deployment of 300 MWp of solar projects with battery storage by mobilizing private capital selected in a competitive manner. It consists of following sub-components: (i) VRE integration and storage; (ii) solar park infrastructure; and (iii) capacity building and implementation support. The third component, private sector mobilization for large-scale solar objectives are to: (i) mobilize private investments for generation; (ii) increase the number of creditworthy customers as part of the customer base of the utility; and (iii) ensuring efficient implementation of all project activities and ensuring...