SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group’s clean energy business, has been appointed by Meridiam, lead developer and investor, to advise on the Senergy and Ten Merina solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects located in Senegal, Africa.
As the first large-scale projects of their kind to be developed in Senegal, each 30MWp site will consist of a ground-mounted PV plant and will have the capacity to supply electricity for the equivalent of 200,000 people.
The West African country is endowed with a large solar energy resource and its government plans to develop 200MW of solar power as part of ‘Scaling Solar’, World Bank Group’s initiative which aims to assist African countries in procuring renewable energy quickly and affordably power through private investment.
SgurrEnergy will act as investors’ and lenders’ technical advisors, providing site inspections, review of equipment, plant design and key project participants, independent energy yield prediction, review of permits and authorisations. The contract also includes review of the construction, maintenance and operation contracts, assistance during project testing and handover, thermographic inspection of PV modules as part of the technical due diligence, construction and operation monitoring phases of the projects.
Mathieu Peller, director of West Africa at Meridiam, said: “We appointed SgurrEnergy to manage these projects as we were impressed with their knowledge and experience in solar and hope that this can be brought to bear for our benefit.”
Arnaud Eté, solar technical manager at SgurrEnergy, said: “We are delighted to be involved in the Senergy and Ten Merina solar PV projects. With abundant renewable energy resources, Senegal is increasingly turning to solar photovoltaics to bolster energy security and support rapid economic growth in a sustainable manner.
“SgurrEnergy has over 15GW of experience working on solar PV plants and we are looking forward to building on our already significant track record to provide the lenders on this project with technical expertise.”
The construction of the Senergy plant started in mid-2016 with grid connection scheduled in mid-2017 whilst the construction of the Ten Merina plant started in early 2017 with a grid connection scheduled in late 2017.
