Kompienga — Burkina Faso

Kompienga is a 14 MW hydro power plant in Est, Burkina Faso. It is operated by Société Nationale d'électricité du Burkina Faso. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 14k homes (estimated). It ranks #9 of 9 Burkina Faso power plants by installed capacity. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 5.3% of Burkina Faso's electricity; the national grid averages 562 gCO₂/kWh (17.2% low-carbon) (2024).

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1023021.

Data provenance

Capacity and fuel are the upstream open-dataset record, not yet matched to a 2026 registry or GEM entry.

capacity: WRI GPPD; fuel: WRI GPPD

In context: how this plant compares

Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.

Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.

Key facts

Share of Burkina Faso hydro capacity

45.2% of 31 MW across 2 plants in this dataset

Calculated from the capacity and generation records in this dataset (WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0)).

Capacity vs largest hydro plants in Burkina Faso

Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by Société Nationale d'électricité du Burkina Faso.

Local climate & thermal context

This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 11.1°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

Monthly mean temperature

This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.

Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.

Site climate & environmental severity

This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.

Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #2 largest hydro power plant of 2 in Burkina Faso by capacity.

Burkina Faso has 2 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 31 MW of capacity.

Location

Coordinates 11.07, 0.7 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

Frequently asked questions