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TotalEnergies has bought a 51% stake in an Africa-focused hydroelectric power venture from Scatec. The deal confirms Scatec’s refocus on core technologies and markets and TotalEnergies’ burgeoning investments in large African hydro plays.

Luanda has chosen Moroccan family-owned civil engineering and port construction heavyweight Société Maghrébine de Génie Civil (Somagec) to build and operate a transmission interconnector linking Angola to the Southern Africa Power Pool. The first private sector investment in transmission since the amendment of the general electricity law in January, it is also an important step forwards for the regional trading ambitions of Enterprise Power DRC, which is linked to Somagec.

Copperbelt Energy Corporation is making progress on the 136MWp second phase of the Itimpi solar PV plant, developing what would be Zambia’s first wind plant and expanding interconnection capacity with Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ivanhoe Mines’ procurement of substantial solar PV and battery storage supply for its operated Kamoa-Kakula copper mine will augment hydroelectricity from Snel and Sapp imports, helping to ensure continuity of power supply at the site, where the commissioning of a smelter has been delayed by power supply problems, writes Marc Howard in Cape Town.

Barrick Gold has confirmed the expected commissioning date for a solar PV storage plant at its Kibali mine in DR Congo’s Haut-Uele province. The new facility is expected to increase the power contribution of renewables to Africa’s largest gold mine to 85%, augmenting substantial hydroelectric power supply.

The entry into Goma of rebel and Rwandan forces is a catastrophe for Democratic Republic of Congo and threatens a return to wider conflict in the Great Lakes region. International efforts have so far failed to secure peace in troubled eastern Congo – which will require difficult decisions and major efforts to curb Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s ambitions, overcome DRC President Félix Tshisekedi’s failings and restore trade in the region’s critical minerals to a legal footing.

New York-headquartered Symbion Power was awarded the Makelele gas-to-power (GTP) project in early 2023 but is still in negotiation with the authorities over compliance with the country’s hydrocarbons laws. The project may yet be expanded to supply electricity to other cities in the east of the country.

Kenya-based PowerGen has secured funds to develop a 120MW portfolio of commercial and industrial (C&I) and off/metro-grid renewable power projects, with an initial focus on projects in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A further $553m pledge has boosted the outgoing Biden administration’s commitments to the Lobito Corridor and adjacent projects to over $4bn. This points to a significant revitalisation of US ties with African countries – which may be too little, too late, although the Lobito project is unlikely to be halted by a more mercantilist Trump administration.

A Gridworks-Eranove-AEE Power consortium, developer of three metro-grid solar PV projects for cities in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, has selected the African Development Bank as lead arranger. An initial funding round for $145m is expected to conclude within 18 months.

Building on funding commitments from the AfDB, US and EU, work is accelerating on the Angola-DRC-Zambia rail network. The Lobito Corridor’s first phase has already seen faster, cheaper exports of Copperbelt minerals and a feasibility study on a Zambian spur is due. Washington is now mulling support for a potential extension of the corridor to the Indian Ocean, which could compete with Chinese plans to rehabilitate the Tazara link, but might even lead to co-operation with Beijing.

Despite an Angolan-brokered ceasefire signed on 30 July between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, rebels of the Alliance du Fleuve Congo and their M23 allies are moving north towards Butembo. Their advance along Lake Edward could reach the DRC’s Albertine Graben oil blocks, though these have been unlicensed for several years.

Norway’s Scatec is selling a majority stake of its hydroelectric power joint venture with Norfund and British International Investment, which is involved in projects in Uganda, Malawi, and a trilateral Great Lakes development.

Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines’ addition of 10MW at the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in DRC fits into a wider plan to add 200MW thermal capacity to compensate for Snel transmission network bottlenecks.

Re-elected amid some controversy for a second term, President Félix Tshisekedi, is promising accelerated reform, while multilateral officials and ambitious executives are again heavily focused on making the ‘transformational’ Grand Inga hydroelectric megaproject work, and miners looking to better exploit global-scale geology are structuring innovative C&I schemes. But enthusiasm about DRC should always be tempered with realism as its politics remain sulphurous, domestic conflicts murderous, and energy and other economics complex.