Building West Africa’s first utility scale wind farm has had a significant positive impact on Senegal, bringing access to clean, affordable energy to millions of Senegalese people.
At Lekela, we’re committed to providing more than clean power alone – and each of our projects is accompanied by considerable investment in the local community and environment. Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye, our 158.7 MW wind project in Senegal, is no different.
We have been planning and executing projects to benefit the nearby community of Taiba N’Diaye since the project began construction. This community work spans from building a new IT centre for the local high school, to creating a marketplace for local women to safely sell their produce, to programmes protecting the rich local biodiversity.
Now that the Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye is in operations, our work continues – to ensure that the project delivers for the local community and ecosystem in the long-term.
Last year we built a 66 kW solar plant just outside Taiba N’Diaye. The system is now fully operational, providing a modern and sustainable alternative to powering the municipality’s water supply. In addition, the significantly lower operating costs provide much needed savings for the community, which benefits climate resilience in an area of Senegal where water scarcity is increasingly an issue.
We also work to protect the biodiversity of the local region, for example, through a long-term bird and bat monitoring programme we have established on site at the wind farm. Look out for our next post in the series, which explores this in more detail.
We work with the local community throughout the process of planning and implementing these programmes, to ensure that we are creating sustainable solutions to support their needs. Watch the video below for more on our ESG work in Senegal.