Senegal opens West Africa’s first big wind farm in push for renewables

DAKAR - Senegal

inau urated the first lar e scale wind farm in est frica on onda a facilit that will suppl nearl a si th of the countr ’s power when it reaches full capacit later this

year.

ith the wind farm ene al will et percent of its ener from renewa le sources which has een a oal of resident ac all.

he ener mi we have toda allows us to move past our dependence on petrol said apa adem a ite e director eneral of enelec the national electricit compan at an inau uration ceremon in the rural communit of ai a ’ ia e.

he me awatt wind farm was uilt ritish renewa le power compan e ela which also has wind farms in outh frica and pt and an upcomin one

in Ghana.

ind farms remain scarce throu hout su aharan frica compared with solar plants partl ecause the can cost more and ta e lon er to uild and ecause stron wind is enerall less plentiful than sunshine said ilvia acri an ener anal st at ar it.

ene al pushed ahead its renewa les a enda uite a ressivel acri told the homson euters

Foundation.

ene al’s first solar plant came online three ears a o and the countr has since uilt several more. ther countries in the re ion are followin suit with solar ut are much further ehind in terms of wind acri said.

n ai a ’ ia e iant wind tur ines rise over scru land a out m from the seaside capital. ne third are operatin and the rest are due to come online une.

utside the cities much of ene al is still not electrified. lectricit reached onl a out percent of the million population in accordin to the orld an .

he wind farm will provide enou h electricit for two million people and prevent the emission of tonnes of car on dio ide annuall accordin to enelec.

he ne t challen e is universal access said ite e.

– REUTERS.