Sinohydro has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract to build the 20 megawatt (MW) Gardete solar plant in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau.

Sinohydro has won the contract, according to local media, after submitting the best bid to an international auction that closed earlier this month and was run by the African Biofuel and Renewable Energy Company (ABREC) on behalf of the Guinea-Bissau government.

ABREC is an organisation supported by a number of West African states that promotes renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The contract for the plant also covers the construction of a 30 kilovolt transmission line connecting the solar farm to the national grid, two small 1MW hybrid solar farms, and a battery storage system.

The plant project is being financed by the West African Development Bank (WADB), which is lending the project US$42.9 million. The WADB is the common development finance institution of the member countries of the West African Monetary Union, which includes Benin, Burkina, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, in addition to Guinea-Bissau.

Guinea-Bissau is bordered to the north by Senegal and to the south and east by Guinea. It has a population of around two million.