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Independent power producer (IPP) Serengeti Energy has commissioned the first phase of its Nkhotakota solar photovoltaic plant in eastern Malawi.

Empower New Energy has started construction of a 1MWp ground-mounted plant for Harvest Feed and Agro Processing in Ajura, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Graphite miner and processor Syrah Resources said on 11 October that it had commissioned the solar PV plant at its Balama mine in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. The solar plus storage unit is expected to displace some 30% of diesel usage at the pre-existing diesel-fired plant.

A central element in Ghana’s debt restructuring is the money owed to domestic independent power producers (IPPs). Industry group the Independent Power Generators, Ghana (IPGG) has been working to hammer out the details of a deal to resolve the IPPs’ crisis over lack of payments by state entities and the haircut on their outstandings demanded by the government following an interim agreement in June.

Mpho Makwana will leave Eskom at the end of October, having served for only slightly over a year as chair of the state utility’s board of directors, with further divisions among decision-makers apparent in the protracted search for a new group chief executive officer (GCEO).

Sturdee Energy’s Bobonong and Shakawe solar PV plants have started commercial operations. The plants are among Botswana’s first renewable energy projects

State utility NamPower has issued a procurement notice for renewable energy consultancy services, under the Namibia Renewable Energy Scale Up Support Project (NRESUSP). The work is divided into two parts.

The World Bank has agreed to extend $1bn to South Africa to help the government’s energy security goals and the transition to a low carbon economy. The development policy loan is expected to help with restructuring of the power sector through the unbundling of state-owned power utility Eskom, as well as encouraging private investment in renewable energy.

US-based developer Husk Power Systems has secured funds from investors, which it will use to scale up its solar mini-grid developments in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Husk – which was established in 2008 – claimed its new Series D funding was “the largest-ever equity raise in the mini-grid industry”.

The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) will soon launch a tender for a 3GW, 1,600km high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line to take power from renewable energy plants in Dakhla, in the disputed Sahara region, up to Kenitra and Tangier in the north.

The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has issued an international tender for a transmission line to complete the 132kV Sondu-Homabay-Awendo power transmission project, to take electricity from the Sondu Miriu hydroelectric power (HEP) plant in Kisumu county to Awendo in Migori county in western Kenya.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners are planning to create what they call the world’s largest mini-grid market in Nigeria, using the new Leveraging Energy Access Finance (Leaf) financing model to support the Rural Electrification Agency (REA)’s Nigeria Electrification Programme (NEP).

Italy’s Studio Pietrangeli has been contracted by Research Triangle Institute (RTI) to carry out the feasibility, conceptual design and tender design for the Tanzania–Malawi interconnector project.

Energy minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh is resisting calls for electricity tariffs to rise, despite Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) recording an annual loss of at least $400m. 

One of the most ambitious claims to emerge from COP26 was that substantial public financing commitments from wealthy nations would unlock a much larger amount of international and domestic private finance. But numbers reviewed by African Energy reveal that there is a staggeringly large finance gap to bridge in Africa.