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A credit facility from the African Guarantee Fund and GuarantCo has unlocked local financing to double the size of the Ambohipihaonana solar PV plant, while adding battery energy storage capacity.
Graphite mining in Madagascar has over a century of history, but production has fallen to low levels. However, two firms have ambitious expansion plans that are expected to markedly increase output in the near future.
The multi-donor Universal Energy Facility has issued a Wave 2 tender for mini-grid projects in Democratic Republic of Congo, while results are awaited on its call for bids in Madagascar and Sierra Leone.
The full 2.4MW phase I capacity of Diego solar PV plant is due to be in service in November, with the commissioning of an additional 700kW of capacity.
Norwegian development agency Norfund and Norway’s largest pension fund KLP have invested $40m of equity in CrossBoundary Energy to expand its portfolio of renewable projects, paving the way for a debt-raising round in 2023.
The Rockefeller Foundations’ Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet has committed $50m to the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All)’s Universal Energy Facility (UEF).
Work has begun at the solar PV plant being developed by CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) at RioTinto’s QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) ilmenite mineral sands project. The project is being developed on the basis of a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) is to build an independent power plant (IPP) to supply NextSource Materials’ Molo graphite mine. The solar/thermal IPP has a 20-year contract to supply the mine.
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.
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 feasibility study on the 60MW Imaloto coal power plant being developed at Imaloto in Toliara province by Lemur Holdings, a subsidiary of Guernsey-registered Bushveld Minerals, is ready for sign-off pending a site visit, according to Bushveld’s annual report released in July. It said most environmental studies had been completed and submission to the Ministry of the Environment was expected in H2 2021.
Rio Tinto announced on 26 July that it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with CrossBoundary Energy for the development of a renewable hybrid project to supply its QIT Madagascar Minerals’ (QMM) ilmenite mine in Fort Dauphin
France’s GreenYellow has signed an agreement with national energy utility Jirama to expand the capacity of its 20MW Ambohipihaonana solar PV plant to 40MW and add a 5MWh lithium-ion storage component. The extension is expected to cost €17m ($20m) and will be financed by Axian Group and GreenYellow for commissioning by end-2021.
A 35-year concession agreement and a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the 120MW Volobe hydroelectric power (HEP) plant are due to be signed between project company Compagnie Générale d’Hydroélectricité de Volobe (CGHV), state-owned offtaker Jiro sy Rany Malagasy (Jirama) and the government in the coming months, CGHV spokesperson Enick Razafindrakoto told African Energy. If this happens as expected, CGHV anticipates construction work will begin in 2023 and commercial operations in 2025.
Off-grid operations have proved resilient in the face of Covid-19 challenges, as major investors and financial institutions expand their support for electricity access away from national grids. But scaling up local businesses so that distributed energy solutions can reach their potential remains a huge challenge, leading industry players told a virtual African Investment Exchange (AIX) meeting.
