Complementarities and synergies with intermittent renewable energy, related issues - Burkina Faso cases studies

Abstract

Pumped Storage Plants (PSP) offer opportunities for better water mobilization and to unlock the development of hydropower in Burkina Faso. The revolution in photovoltaic energy, which has greatly improved reliability and production costs, has opened up major prospects for the energy development of Sahelian countries with a very large solar energy deposit that has remained fallow for the time being. The lower production cost of solar energy makes it more attractive to mobilize water in offshore (outside rivers) basins and reservoirs in areas where there are few underground water resources and where flat land limits the construction of dams. This paper will develop these perspectives for a country like Burkina and the Sahel in general where access to electricity is one of the lowest in the world which, paradoxically, have a very large solar deposit and insufficient water resource mobilization.