Mauritania is Building Its Power Pipeline Around Independent Producers
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Mauritania is expanding its electricity supply through a growing pipeline of privately financed solar, wind, storage and gas projects. The approach follows a 2025 policy shift in which the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum handed new generation to private developers and pulled state companies out of production. The decision was backed by revised investment and public-private partnership codes written with overseas capital in mind.
The projects in development make Mauritania one of the most active power markets on the agenda at MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power 2026 in Dakar this December, where a dedicated National Spotlight will bring the country's energy plans before regional and international investors.
Iwa Green Energy's $300 million hybrid plant was Mauritania's first independent power producer (IPP) contract. The plant pairs 160 MW of solar with 60 MW of wind and a 370 MWh battery system, supplying state utility Société Mauritanienne d'Electricité (SOMELEC) with a guaranteed 60 MW around the clock under a 15-year agreement. The African Development Bank (AfDB) counts it among the first projects developed under the IPP framework of its Desert to Power initiative for the Sahel, and the government has said the fully private structure expands supply without adding to public debt.
SOMELEC is now applying the same structure in the east of the country. A 50 MWp solar photovoltaic plant with battery storage at Néma, about 1,100 km east of Nouakchott, is being prepared for tender as an IPP, with a Green Climate Fund grant mobilized through the AfDB financing the program. Twenty-eight firms from around twenty countries submitted expressions of interest for the advisory mandate, which covers the bankability work and an IPP-ready tender. The plant will also connect to the national 225 kV grid. With the tender still ahead, MSGBC 2026 gives prospective bidders an early forum to meet Mauritania's energy stakeholders in Dakar.
Grid investment is advancing in parallel, with SOMELEC shortlisting six groups under the World Bank-funded Development of Energy Resources and Mineral Sector Support project to build the country's first utility-scale battery storage system. The system will help the network absorb more solar and wind output. A separate €39.2 million French-financed program covers ten solar plants with storage to hybridize thermal stations in the interior, and SOMELEC is now recruiting an engineering firm to oversee their construction and maintenance.
Gas adds further dispatchable capacity to the pipeline via the 230 MW N'Diago plant, Mauritania's first large-scale gas-fired IPP, in which Saudi developer ACWA Power holds 60% of the $669 million project company. The plant will run on gas from the offshore Greater Tortue Ahmeyim field. Alongside the renewable IPPs, it supports the government's targets of universal electricity access and a 70% renewable share by 2030. Mauritania's National Spotlight at the MSGBC Investment Forum on December 3 puts the officials steering the program across the table from developers and lenders.
Organized by Energy Capital & Power under the High Patronage of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, MSGBC Oil, Gas & Power 2026 takes place December 1–3 at the Centre International de Conférences Abdou Diouf in Dakar. For more information and registration, visit www.msgbcoilgasandpower.com