The Government of Togo has entered into a joint development agreement with independent power producer Globeleq to develop up to 30 MW of renewable energy capacity in the African nation. Technology for this project is not yet decided and could either be a pure hydropower plant, a combined hydropower and solar power plant or a solar power plant with large capacity battery storage.
Exact capacity of the planned utility scale project could range between 24 MW and 30 MW, located between Kara and Dapaong region and connected to the Kara-Mango-Dapaong transmission line that's currently being constructed. Togo wants to develop the project under a public private partnership (PPP) model and expects it to generate reliable, low-cost and 100% renewable energy to support the country's industrial development policy.
Togo is now part of the Scaling Solar initiative of the World Bank and tendered up to 80 MW capacity earlier this year (see Up To 80 MW Solar Tender In Africa's Togo). According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), till the end of 2018, Togo's cumulative renewable energy capacity was 70 MW, out of which 67 MW was from hydropower and 3 MW from solar power.
Globeleq says the agreement was signed in December 2019 and is part of the country's National Development Plan 2018-2022 and shows the government's desire to increase economic relations with the United Kingdom (UK). Globeleq has UK government's development finance institution CDC as its 70% stakeholder along with Norwegian private equity company Norfund holding a 30% share.
Focused on the African energy industry, Globeleq develops and operates utility scale power plants in the areas of gas, wind, solar and heavy fuel oil (HFO). According to the its website, Globeleq has five solar power plants in South Africa with a total solar power capacity of 219 MW. Last year it was one of the consortiums with Aurora Power to win in the Zambian solar auction (see Zambia Awards 120 MW Under GET FiT Auction).