The Central African Republic inaugurated a 50-megawatt solar plant with 15 megawatt-hours of battery storage at Sakaï, outside Bangui, on Aug. 12. It is described as the largest infrastructure project in the country’s history, and it raises national generating capacity—the maximum amount of power that could be generated at one moment—by more than 60%. (This does not correspond to an increase in electricity generation by 60%.)
The 50 MW installation comprises 80,000 panels and 156 inverters, built in ten months by an Abu Dhabi developer.
While this expansion provides much needed electricity, it also measures what has not been done. Fifty megawatts will not run a steel mill, a fertilizer plant, or an electrified railway. And it won’t produce anything at night. A country of some five million people, with diamonds, gold, uranium and timber resources, has been left with a national generating capacity smaller than one industrial facility in Europe or China consumes by itself.
