Ten Merina is a 30 MW solar power plant in Thies, Senegal. It is operated by Solairedirect [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 13k homes (estimated). It ranks #15 of 21 Senegal power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2018, it is around 8 years old — recently built. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, solar supplies about 8.9% of Senegal's electricity; the national grid averages 540 gCO₂/kWh (19.8% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WKS0067472.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is a source-verified 2026 capacity claim: 30 MW for Ten Merina solar farm.
Source: GEM tracker raw 2026. Scope: operating/nameplate; source-backed GEM tracker 2026 plant record. Confidence: high_source_row_verified.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000800325); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
Technically it is described as PV. Solar PV converts sunlight directly into electricity with no moving parts or fuel; output varies by time of day and weather, so it pairs with storage or flexible backup.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Solairedirect [100%].
This solar plant converts sunlight directly into electricity with photovoltaic panels. It sits in a hot semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen BSh) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 15.1°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.
Solar PV loses ~0.35%/°C above 25°C cell temperature — roughly 1.2% at warm-season highs here (estimate).
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.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
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.
The #2 largest solar power plant of 4 in Senegal by capacity.
Senegal has 4 solar power plants in this dataset, together about 109 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 15.13, -16.676 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Ten Merina is a 30 MW source-record solar power plant in Thies, Senegal, commissioned in 2018.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 12,764 homes (estimated).
Ten Merina is operated by Solairedirect [100%].
