The report, citing Louis Seck, Senegal’s Minister for Renewable Energy, said the first and larger of the two wind farms will go on line next year, with a capacity of 125 MW.
A second wind farm, with a capacity of 50 MW, will be built in a separate location on the northern coast, the newspaper said.
Senegal has been moving toward making renewable energy a significant part of its energy mix since 2003, when it asked the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for support in building a 10 MW wind farm.
As part of that earlier plan, energy from the wind farm would be fed into the grid operated by SENELEC, the national power utility.
Since then Senegal has conducted extensive wind measurements for at least two sites, Kayar and Potou, and produced a feasibility study on the nation’s wind energy potential.
Then, just this past July, the Senegalese parliament unanimously passed a new law aimed at promoting a wide range of renewable energy production.
Among the objectives of the law, called the Guidance on Renewable Energy, is to seek sure supplies of renewable energy that can be developed and delivered at an affordable cost, increase people’s access to what the government deemed “modern energy services”, and to reduce the nation’s vulnerability to pollution caused by fossil fuels.
The government hopes to have 15 percent of the nation’s energy needs with renewable energy by 2020, with sources to include solar, wind and bio-fuels.
Senegal’s state power company currently produces 548 MW of electricity, according to statistics provided to the government by the utility.
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