Boulenouar Wind Power Station

Boulenouar Wind Power Station, also Boulenoir Wind Power Station, is a 102.375 MW wind power plant, under development in Mauritania. When completed, as expected in 2022, the power station will be the largest wind power station in Mauritania.

Location
The power station is located in the village of Boulenouar approximately 400 km, northwest of the city of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. This is in the extreme northwest of the country, close to the international border with Morocco.

Overview
The wind farm consists of 39 Siemens-Gamesa turbines, each with rated capacity of 2.625 megawatts. The total installed capacity of the power station is 102.375 megawatts.

Development
The power station is owned by the consortium that is developing it and will operate it once construction is completed. The shareholders in the consortium are (a) the German conglomerate Siemens and (b) the Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa. The Spanish technology conglomerate Elecnor was part of the consortium but withdrew and sold its shareholding to Siemens, in the third quarter of 2020.

Costs and funding
As of September 2020, the development of this power station is budgeted at €140 million. The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), a Kuwait-based development finance institution that is part of the Arab League, has committed to lend €120 million towards the development of this power station.

Impact
As of 2020, Mauritania uses approximately 380 megawatts of electricity. Of this, approximately 76 percent (approx. 289 MW), is sourced from thermal generators. The remaining 24 percent (approx. 91 MW), is imported from Manantali Hydroelectric Power Station in Mali. With the country's population growling at 2.6 percent annually, renewable sources of energy, particularly solar and wind, offer an environmentally friendly pathway to expand its electricity supply and stimulate economic growth.