"As part of our ambition to facilitate universal access to electricity and to serve all Togolese households with clean and renewable energy, this plant will serve 158.333 Togolese households and will save more than one million tonnes of CO2 emissions throughout its lifespan, "President Faure Gnassingbé said on his Twitter account on Tuesday evening.
"I am delighted with this achievement made in record time (18 months, editor's note)", he added.
Built by AMEA Togo Solar, a subsidiary of AMEA Power, a giant of the United Arab Emirates, this solar power plant is erected on an area of 92 hectares, consists of 127.344 solar panels for an installed capacity of 50 MW and a production of approximately 90.255 MWh of energy per year.
It is currently the largest solar power plant in the region, ahead of the Kita power plant in Mali, and it is part of a series of investments by the AMEA Power group in Africa and in the development policy of solar energy in Togo.
Named "Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed" (name of the crown prince of Abu Dhabi), it was financed to more than 35 billion CFA francs (53.356 million euros) by concessional loans from the West African Development Bank (BOAD ) and by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).
An additional 20 MW should be built on the same site before the end of the year.
This photovoltaic plant will be operated for 25 years by AMEA Togo Solar.
Togo, which imports more than half of the energy it needs from Nigeria and Ghana, relies in particular on solar energy to develop, with start-ups, access to electricity for its eight million inhabitants up to the most remote areas of the country.