Infrastructure
W. Africa’s Largest Hydropower Dam Opens
The Soubre hydroelectric power station has an installed capacity of 275MW.
West Africa’s largest hydropower dam has been inaugurated in Soubre, Cote d’Ivoire, in a move that further cements the country as a key supplier of electricity in the region.
The Soubre hydroelectric power station that was built by Sinohydro of China is 4.5 km long and is strategically located at the Naoua Falls on the Sassandra River.
It has an installed capacity of 275 MW, which will help raise Cote d’Ivoire’s power output while enhancing the country’s status as a major power producer and supplier in West Africa.
“The government of Cote d’Ivoire is very satisfied with the quality and speed of the construction of the Soubre hydroelectric dam,” President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire said at the dam’s inauguration ceremony.
Teyssiaux Jean, an engineer with Tractebel Engineering, a French firm that undertook quality supervision over Soubre’s construction said: “Soubre dam is of high quality and built within a shorter period than schedule.”
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The Soubre hydroelectric power station project had failed to take off for decades due lack of funds and it only moved forward in February 2013 after it obtained funding from China.
The project cost about $572 million, with 85 per cent funded by the Export-Import Bank of China and the government of Cote d’Ivoire covering the remaining 15 per cent.
Cote d’Ivoire is seeking to double its power production to 4,000 MW by 2020.
“With Soubre dam, we’re on course to meet the target of 4,000 MW by 2020,” said Thierry Tanoh, energy minister of Cote d’Ivoire.
After Soubre’s inauguration, a groundbreaking was held at the same site for the construction of the 112 MW Gribo-Popoli, a hydropower dam located 15 km downstream of Soubre.
The project, whose cost is yet to be disclosed, is being undertaken by Sinohydro.
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