Phaesun Wins Burkina Faso Contract
Along with its partner Ikratos Africa, based in Burkina Faso's capitol Ouagadougou , Phaesun GmbH from Memmingen , Germany , is constructing ten solar power plants in Koudougou Region in Burkina Faso, to be finished at the end of March. The solar modules will produce electricity for telecommunications plants. The contracting party is the telecommunications company Telecel, which has been able to cover 75 % of the network with diesel-powered telecommunications plants so far. This project is Phaesun's first in the landlocked West-African country, which counts among the poorest in the world.
"Thanks to every solar plant, Telecel saves more than 30,000 euros, as compared to the diesel-driven plants, and around 184 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually," explains Phaesun employer Amar Chikha, who is helping build the plant.
The high acquisition costs will have already paid for themselves after two to three years, since maintenance and diesel supply are time-consuming and expensive due to long transportation distances. The solar plants are, in contrast, equipped with a remote monitoring system and are nearly maintenance free. Each system consists of 108 monocrystalline solar modules from ET Solar, batteries from Hoppecke and charge controllers, which were developed especially for telecommunication systems and are particularly suitable for hot regions. Each system has a total output of 9.18 kilowatts.
The first one went on line on 16 February, this year. During the five-day installation, Phaesun trained around 30 engineers, technicians and installers from Telecel and Ikratos on location. "For large projects we always install the first plant ourselves according to our quality standards and then give our know-how to our partners on location", says Chikha.
Sixty further solar plants have already been planned, as Telecel plans to increase the network coverage to 100 percent as well as to replace all of the previously installed diesel generators with solar plants.
