BURKINA FASO – Burkina Faso’s national energy supplier, SONABEL, has partnered with  MAN Energy Solutions to increase the country’s generation capacity by 55MW with the expansion of one of its power plants.

The project expansion is located the SONABEL owned power plant in Kossodo – a suburb of the capital city, Ouagadougou.

The project is inline with the government’s goal of increasing electricity generation in Burkina Faso and follows a 30MW solar power park project whose construction began in Februray this year.

The solar power project is located in the Mouhoun Loop region of northwest Burkina Faso and is being constructed by the French solar project developer Urbasolar – part of the Swiss Axpo

Africa Energy Portal reports that the SONABEL power expansion project will use three MAN Energy 18V51/60TS engines.

The Engines from MAN Energy Solutions are expected to increase SONABEL’s power generation capacity by almost 20% in Burkina Faso.

“At present, only 30% of Burkina Faso’s population has access to electrical energy,” said Waldemar Wiesner, the head of Middle-East Africa for power plant sales at MAN Energy Solutions.

Mr Weisner further explained that he government of Burkina Faso wants to change the situation and was planning to significantly increase generation capacity in the next years.

Wiesner added that MAN Energy was proud of its contribution to energy generation in Burkina Faso through its new engines in Kossodo

According to Africa Energy Portal, the three engines incorporate two-stage turbocharging. Gensets of this design have both a low- and a high-pressure compressor, which operates in series to deliver an increase in power density and efficiency.

Africa Energy Portal notes that the ability of MAN Energy’s engines to support both a low- and a high-pressure compressor simultaneously guarantees maximum fuel efficiency and a more compact system design.

Wiesner explained that the high service quality that MAN Energy has demonstrated over the years in maintaining various engines already in operation was decisive for winning this order.

“In addition, SONABEL has chosen an innovative engine setup for the power plant in Kossodo, making it, by far the most efficient power plant in the country and clearly meeting the emission guidelines of the World Bank,” added Wiesner.

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