AFP reported on June 10 that SODEN and CFM signed a $3 million financing agreement to develop the world's first power plant connected to the national grid and fueled by agricultural byproducts in Côte d'Ivoire. The project has an installed capacity of about 76 megawatts and an annual power generation of about 550 gigawatt-hours. It will use about 600,000 tons of byproducts from the cocoa and rubber industries (including shells, pods, non-commercial pods and scrapped rubber trees) each year and is expected to be put into operation by 2029.
The project is in line with the Ivorian government's strategic goal of increasing the proportion of renewable energy generation in the power structure to 45% by 2030, of which hydropower accounts for 33% and biomass and solar energy account for 12%.
