On the banks of the Konkoure River, flowing down from Guinea’s Fouta Djallon highlands, the Kaleta Hydropower Station rises as a striking landmark. Its reflection shimmers on the water a powerful symbol now immortalized on Guinea’s 20,000-franc banknote.
Just a decade ago, the picture was starkly different. Conakry, the national capital, and villages in the northern mountains relied heavily on noisy diesel generators. Despite being known as the “Water Tower of West Africa,” Guinea sourced more than 70 percent of its electricity from costly, polluting fuel oil. Frequent power outages and a fragile grid slowed economic growth and strained daily life.
“Before Kaleta was built, outages happened almost every day, sometimes for hours,” recalled Alhassane Bangoura, a local translator who worked on the project.
That changed in August 2015, when the Kaleta Hydropower Station, built by China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE), a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Limited, began full operations. Producing an average of 1.125 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, Kaleta closed nearly half of Guinea’s power gap and boosted the share of renewables in the energy mix.
Alongside the plant, a new transmission network linked the capital to 11 prefectures, delivering stable electricity to remote communities for the first time. “We could finally power homes, schools, and clinics far from Conakry,” said Djenabou Diallo, financial manager of the Kaleta Power Plant Management Company.
In 2021, CWE completed the Souapiti Hydropower Station further upstream. Together, Kaleta and Souapiti now generate over 80 percent of Guinea’s electricity — ending reliance on fuel oil and transforming the country from a power-deficient nation into a net exporter. Today, Guinea supplies electricity to six neighboring countries, including Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone. “We used to struggle to meet our own demand; now we light up nights beyond our borders,” Diallo said with pride.
Beyond energy, the projects have fostered significant skills transfer and job creation. At the peak of construction, Kaleta created more than 1,500 local jobs. Since 2016, CWE and the Guinean government have trained nearly 100 Guineans in China and at local universities. “From welding to equipment maintenance, we learned directly from Chinese engineers. They didn’t just give us electricity — they gave us skills,” Bangoura noted.
Many of those trained at Kaleta became mentors at Souapiti, enabling Guinean teams to manage routine maintenance and operational planning independently. “Our Chinese friends shared not only technology, but the philosophy of sustainable development,” Bangoura added.
The impact has extended into local communities. The Kaleta team donated equipment benefiting around 20,000 residents and regularly hosted “open days” for schoolchildren. “They played football with us, celebrated our festivals, and treated us like family,” Bangoura recalled. He even shared how a Chinese colleague once arranged urgent medical help for his relative.
Today, as night falls, the lights of Kaleta twinkle across the valley. Children study under steady lamps, factories run without interruption, and cities across West Africa benefit from Guinean electricity.
Looking ahead, CWE plans to deepen cooperation with the Guinean government, expanding power infrastructure to support the nation’s mining-driven growth. For Guinea, the banknote bearing Kaleta’s image stands as both a celebration of progress and a message of partnership: true cooperation ensures the light of development reaches every corner.
