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The 25MW first phase of US company ContourGlobal’s KivuWatt project to generate power from Lake Kivu’s methane is due to commission between March and May this year. Delays associated with procuring equipment, materials and personnel could cause further hold-ups, but the project is eagerly anticipated by observers waiting to see whether the technology can be expanded beyond the government’s 1.5MW pilot scheme.

The World Bank is set to provide $60m additional financing to the Electricity Access Scale-up project in Rwanda. The final decision will be made by the board on 11 January 2013. The original $80m project has played an important part in increasing the rate of electrification from 28,000 connections in 2008 to 100,000 in 2012.

Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union and the African Union Commission’s Regional Geothermal Coordination Unit are gearing up to select the first projects from their new €50m Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF), to support developments in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Turkey’s Hakan Mining and Electricity Generation has signed a contract valued at $283m to begin exploiting Rwanda’s extensive peat reserves. The company will begin construction of a peat extraction facility and a 100MW peat-fired power plant within 12 to 15 months.

Few countries in sub-Saharan Africa have impressed investors, donors and governments as much as President Paul Kagame’s Rwanda. With a development strategy crafted in co-ordination with advisers such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative, Kagame has rebuilt Rwanda, making Kigali one of Africa’s best-functioning capitals and attracting infrastructure and other commercial investments. As one long-time Central Africa-watcher expresses it: “Rwanda has taken the uniquely organised structures of the pre-colonial Tutsi kingdoms and transposed that to a modern state.”

ALGERIA: Siemens maintenance contract at Hassi R’Mel; EGYPT: Alstom substation contract; RWANDA/DR CONGO: Ruzizi road contract relaunched; SOUTH AFRICA: O&M contract for Wärtsilä

TANZANIA: Pirates threaten Songo Songo; RWANDA: Vanoil extends technical evaluation agreement; KENYA: Apache secures rig for Mbawa

ALGERIA: Siemens confirms Hassi R’Mel hybrid contract; RWANDA/REGION: Ruzizi road tender cancelled

Kigali plans to double generation capacity within five years, but delays mean growth will be slower than expected.

The 9MW Rukarara I plant became operational in January. It is leased to the local Digitech Solutions Ltd, which has an option to own it after 15 years

The European Union has invited applications to prequalify for studies for the proposed 145MW Ruzizi I hydroelectric project’s grid connection, and rehabilitation studies for the 29.8MW Ruzizi 1 and 43.8MW Ruzizi II plants (AE 207/14).

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme (Nelsap) has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) by 23 November from consultants to serve as owner’s engineer for the 90MW Rusumo Falls hydropower project on the Kagera River.

The Energy Water and Sanitation Authority is seeking expressions of interest for the construction of a 220kV transmission line between Mirama

ContourGlobal subsidiary KivuWatt has given Finland’s Wärtsilä Corporation a contract to supply the power plant for its project to harness methane gas from Lake Kivu. The plant will be powered by 20-cylinder Wärtsilä 34SG gas-powered engines and have an electrical output of 25MW.

US power developer ContourGlobal has signed agreements for a $91.25m loan facility for phase I of the KivuWatt project to turn Lake Kivu’s methane into power (AE 209/8).