dena RES project Togo
News from West Africa
Read this article in French.
Together with our partner KYA ENERGY GROUP, maxx Germany built a 30 kWp Off-Grid plant in Lomé, Togo and operates an entire production facility 100% solar!
The 30 KWp off-grid plant is the second solar plant for the headquarters of the KYA-Energy Group in Lomé. The founder of KYA, Prof. Dr. Yao Azoumah, has always relied on solar energy. Now his business is growing and he recently built new workshops. The upgrade of the current 10 KWp plant in cooperation with a German partner to a 30 KWp solar plant gives him the opportunity to generate the electricity required at the site himself and to demonstrate various technologies.
The 30 kWp solar off-grid system combines German solar technology with the innovative monitoring concept of the KYA Energy Group team. 105 solar modules from the German company IBC, each with an output of 285 Wp, will produce around 90 kWh of electricity per day. The electricity will mainly be consumed during the day and partly stored in 48 BAE batteries with a total capacity of 1750 Ah at 48 V; for use at night and in low sunlight.
In order to maximize the energy yield, the modules are oriented in different directions. Energy generation is thus synchronised with energy consumption. With the German battery manufacturer BAE Batterien GmbH from Berlin, maxx and KYA have found not only a supplier, but also a partner. Jan IJspeert, Managing Director of BAE Batterien GmbH, supports the pilot project because he sees West Africa as an important market for his high-quality batteries.
maxx-solar & energie has been working very successfully and constructively with dena for many years. Together with their South African sister company, it is their goal to bring systems and know-how made in Germany to our target countries with the possibilities of dena.
German quality as pilot project
"Solar systems are designed to last a long time. Only then they develop really low electricity production costs, which are necessary for the economic development in Africa. Therefore, the quality in the product and in the execution must stand in the front place , stresses managing director Dieter Ortmann.
maxx can rely on the quality and execution of its project partners KYA-Energy Group and Prof. Dr. Azoumah. The cooperation went almost without a hitch, except for a few delays in importing the materials and rainfall, which made installation more difficult. The planned opening can thus take place punctually on 15 November. Dr. Azoumah and his team really did a great job!
The 30 kWp off-grid system will be used during the GREEN Solar Academy training sessions, which will focus on solar mini grids. The GREEN Solar Academy is the successor of the maxx-solar academy. Training courses for the KYA team have already taken place in Togo and Johannesburg and the first training course on the installation of solar systems in Togo was offered at the beginning of November. More details on the academy activities in Togo can be found on www.solar-training.org.
More about KYA-Energy Group
KYA-ENERGY GROUP was founded in Togo in July 2015. The headquarter is located in Lomé, Togo (West Africa) with two more branches in Benin and Ghana. It currently has a permanent and non-permanent technical staff of about 20 people composed of PhDs in energy, engineers and technicians in the fields of energy, electricity, electrotechnics and automation. The main business field is assembling and trading of stand-alone energy systems, especially for household applications (private customers) and productive applications (SMEs and agricultural applications). KYA-ENERGY GROUP has developed its own products and is a very dynamic company in Togo when it comes to mini grids installation, operation and maintenance. Other business fields are engineering and feasibility studies in the energy sector, trainings and research and development.
German Energy Agency (dena)
dena is Germany’s centre of expertise for energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and intelligent energy systems. As Agency for Applied Energy Transition dena helps achieve energy and climate policy objectives by developing solutions and putting them into practice, both nationally and internationally. In order to do this, dena brings partners from politics and business together, across sectors. dena’s shareholders are the Federal Republic of Germany and the KfW Group. https://www.dena.de/en
German Energy Solutions Initiative
The transfer of energy expertise, the promotion of foreign trade and the facilitation of international development cooperation are part of the German Energy Solutions Initiative, which is coordinated and financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The initiative offers networking and business opportunities in Germany and abroad, it showcases reference projects and facilitates know-how exchange. www.german-energy-solutions.de/en
dena Renewable Energy Solutions Programme (dena RES Programme)
The dena RES Programme was developed by the Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) – the German Energy Agency. This programme, supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy within the German Energy Solutions Initiative, helps German renewable energy companies enter new markets. Within the framework of the programme, reference and demonstration projects are installed in cooperation with prestigious institutions. The installation is accompanied by comprehensive PR, marketing and training programmes. These projects showcase high-quality German renewable energy technology and help participating companies gain a foothold in new markets. www.german-energy-solutions.de/en/res