France backs 55 MW battery for Togo

The AFD and GEAPP have committed $200,000 to support a battery storage project in Togo.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The funding will back a 55 MW battery pilot project that can be replicated across Africa as well as development of a national storage roadmap for Togo. The Togolese government wants to extend electricity access to the 40% of its population that currently lack it, by 2030.

The government also wants half of its power generation mix to be based on renewables this year as it bids to reduce dependence on imported energy. Batteries are a critical component of the hoped-for rise in clean energy.

The Togo funding is part of GEAPP’s battery energy storage system consortium, which aims to unite 30 countries to deploy 5 GW of storage by 2030.

The plan follows Togo’s decision to sign the Energy Compact last month and commit to the Mission 300 initiative, which aims to bring electricity access to 300 million Africans across 17 nations by 2030. Mission 300 is a World Bank and African Development Bank initiative.

From pv magazine France.