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A pattern of similar traits is discernable in the spate of coups d’état that have shaken assumptions about governance across Francophone West Africa – a region which has experienced six putsches since August 2020, when Colonel Assimi Goïta first took over in Mali, after three decades of post-Cold War democratisation.

Political and security conditions may be acutely difficult in the G5 Sahel countries, but a new era beckons for solar projects in the region, symbolised by AfDB approval of a plan to develop 500MW of PV capacity. Sector insiders believe that short-term problems such as rising risk premiums may be offset by the positive medium-to-long-term prospects for the rollout of solar PV across the Sahel, writes Marc Howard

Norfund has invested €10m ($11.6m) equity in solar home system (SHS) distributor Baobab+, which is active in Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali and Senegal, where it has supplied some 220,000 households.

The African Development Bank (AfDB)-led Desert-to-Power (DtP) initiative is gathering momentum with a $150m investment by the Green Climate Fund. The investment is expected to be followed by further commitments from the AfDB to take the Desert to Power G5 Financing Facility – which covers Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – to $379.6m, to support projects across the supply chain.

China under President Xi Jinping has shifted markedly from its position of not intervening in foreign conflicts – even in a multilateral context – and positioning its forces far from the People’s Republic. Beijing has stepped up its military presence in Africa over the last decade, in large part through its contributions to United Nations peace-keeping missions.

Demand for commercial and industrial (C&I) power projects is surging, particularly in eastern and southern Africa. In key markets such as South Africa and Kenya, customers have opted for C&I solutions that not only offer cheaper tariffs but also greater reliability than the grid. These imperatives have also prompted a shift to C&I in the West African market, where the sector has seen considerable activity this year although market players still deem it to be ‘early days’.

A rarity until a few years ago, battery and renewable power plants have more recently outcompeted fossil fuel projects without subsidy in several African markets. The AIX: Financing Battery Storage meeting heard about the extent Bess projects are making headway, despite financiers’ reservations.

A 3.9MW solar PV power plant ,with 2.6MWh of battery storage, being developed by Vivo Energy to supply Robex Resources’s Nampala mine, remains on course to be commissioned by year-end.

Mali’s second coup d’état in less than a year, following the Chadian president’s death fighting on the frontline, are violent reminders of the stakes at play in the Sahel region, which veers from crisis to crisis despite ever larger efforts by regional governments and their international partners, who are pushing hard to catalyse much-needed investment flows into suffering economies.

A new off-grid power plant at Resolute Mining’s Syama gold mine in the Sikasso region of Mali is now operational, with 20MW of heavy fuel oil (HFO) capacity and a 10MW/5MWh battery energy storage system (Bess) online, the Australian mining company told African Energy.

After a decade of conflict that has threatened to submerge the Malian state, the ‘transition government’ of prime minister Moctar Ouane had a big agenda to fulfil before elections were due to held in Q1 2022.

Senegal’s water and sanitation minister Serigne Mbaye Thiam confirmed the 140MW Gouina hydropower plant will be commissioned in September, during a recent site visit. The plant, situated at the Gouina Falls in the Kayes region of Mali, was initially scheduled for commercial operations in May 2021, however Covid-19-related issues resulted in construction delays.

According to the most widely accepted version of still hazy events, President Idriss Déby Itno (IDI) was injured on 17-18 April fighting rebels near Mao in the Kanem region, some 300km from N’djamena; he was pronounced dead early on 20 April. The military leader, who became president in 1990, had just been re-elected (with 79.32% of the official vote) for a sixth term in a vote on 11 April.

Prime Minister Moctar Ouane formally inaugurated the Kourouba dam in the Koulikoro region of south-western Mali on 15 January.

The G5 Sahel countries have received new support for solar generation in the Desert to Power scheme promoted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The AfDB’s stated ambition is for the G5 Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger – to harness their potential to create “the world’s largest solar zone”. The AfDB aims to increase on- and off-grid solar generation capacity by 10GW, to transform the livelihoods of some 250m people across the 11-state Sahel region.