Biovea: Africa’s first biomass power plant with grid injection

Biovea Energie is a company incorporated under Ivorian law owned by EDF (Electricité de France), Meridiam and Biokala, a joint venture set up by Meridiam and SIFCA, a major agribusiness player in West Africa.

The project involves building and operating a 46 MW biomass power plant and its related infrastructure. The power plant will be supplied by some 450,000 tons of palm waste provided by PALMCI, a subsidiary of SIFCA. PALMCI will source 30% of the biomass required for the power plant from its own oil palm plantations and 70% from smallholders in the region. It will be the first power plant in Africa to produce renewable energy from biomass to inject it into the national power grid.

The project should have significant impacts by:

• Allowing 1,200,000 people to benefit from an improved electricity service. 
• Supporting 46,700 jobs over the next 5 years and generating EUR 1.8m a year of additional income for smallholders (i.e. a 14 to 20% increase compared to their current income).  
• Avoiding about 171,000 tCO2eq of emissions a year, i.e. some 4.3 MtCO2eq throughout the lifespan of the project. This will directly contribute to the country’s low carbon trajectory and to the Ivorian Government’s objective of increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix to 42% by 2030.

The project will thereby contribute to SDGs n° 1 (No poverty), n° 7 (Clean energy), n° 8 (Decent work and economic growth), n° 9 (Infrastructure) and n° 13 (Climate change). 

Proparco is providing E&S assistance to the project.