Baía Farta Solar Power Station

The Baía Farta Solar Power Station is an operational 96.7 MW solar power plant in Angola. The power station, which was commercially commissioned on 20 July 2022, was developed by a consortium comprising (a) M. Couto Alves Vias SA, an energy consulting company based in Angola (b) M.Couto Alves SA, a construction company based in Portugal and (c) Sun Africa LLC, a renewable energy solutions company based in the United States. The power off-taker is Empresa Rede Nacional de Transporte de Electricidade (RNT-EP) (English: National Electricity Transmission Network). The power station is owned by the Angolan Ministry of Energy and Water.

Location
The power station is located at Baía Farta, a municipality in Benguela Province. Baía Farta sits on the coast of Atlantic Ocean, approximately 29 km, southwest of city of Benguela, the provincial capital. The geographical coordinates of the power station are: 12°37'18.0"S, 13°10'51.0"E (Latitude:-12.621667; Longitude:13.180833).

Overview
The power station comprises 261,360 ground-mounted solar photovoltaic panels. The solar complex sits on a piece of real estate measuring 186 ha. The design calls for a generation capacity of 96.7 megawatts. Its output is sold directly to the Empresa Rede Nacional de Transporte de Electricidade (RNT), the national electricity transportation utility company, for integration into the national grid.

The Angolan government is in the process of expanding national electricity generation from 5.01 GW in 2021 to 9.9 GW by 2025, of which 800 MW is sourced from renewable sources.

Developers and ownership
The table below illustrates the corporate entities who developed the solar farm and their countries of domicile.

The power station is reported to belong to the Angolan Ministry of Energy and Water and is operated by Empresa Pública de Produção de Electricidade (PRODEL-EP), the national electricity generation utility company.

Construction costs
The construction costs of this renewable energy infrastructure is reported as US$152 million.