Benin’s first wind farm to power one of the biggest ports in West Africa

The Autonomous Port of Cotonou (PAC), among the largest ports on the West African coast, is planning for a booming future. The PAC aims to realize this growth with the lowest possible carbon footprint by installing a wind farm on its premises. To help achieve this, our teams recently delivered the results of the pre-feasibility study for Benin’s first wind farm, planned to power the growing port.

The Port of Cotonou is currently one of Benin’s highest energy consumers, and will expand current capacity and energy consumption by two to three times within the next few years. The PAC has already undertaken important work to reinforce its electrical infrastructure. By installing a wind power plant, it aims to increase its energy independence and to support its growing activity. By the same token, the European Commission wishes to promote the development of a renewable energy policy and create an exemplary economic and social framework according to its objectives. This investment is in line with the program resulting from the 2030 energy strategy, which sets a target of 30% of renewable energy in the national electricity mix.

The Port of Cotonou today, prior to wind farm installation

Representation of the Port of Cotonou with future wind farm

Together with our partners ENGIE Impact, Oryx Expertise and Egnon Consulting, our renewable energy experts coordinated the full pre-feasibility study. This included site visits, environmental, economic and legal analyses, and assessments of visual impact, wind resource, energy yield and impact and risk. The consortium is led by Safege.

The PAC wind power project will see the installation of an 18-30 MVA substation for the Port of Cotonou alone. This would represent around 10% of the overall national electric grid capacity of Benin.

“We are proud to play our part in this key infrastructure project that will bring significant benefits to Benin, including an acceleration of the energy transition. It will help meet the PAC’s growing energy demands and hence will relieve some stress on the grid. The size of the project will be engineered in such a way to cover local consumption and at the same time to be compatible with the surrounding energy grid. Since installation of the wind turbines will be in an industrial area, there is little risk of damage due to construction or operation that would impact the environment. It’s a great project that’s expected to create jobs for many years to come.”

Martina Pianta, Tractebel Project Manager

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