Search results

Minister of energy and water resources João Baptista Borges has announced that 300MW of new off-grid solar PV capacity will be installed by year-end. He told a business forum during the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on 11 February that systems would be installed in Benguela, in Luena (Moxico Province), in Saurimo (Lunda Sul), Dundo (Lunda Norte) and Bailundo (Huambo Province) with a total investment of $500m.

Finland’s Wärtsilä announced on 22 December that it has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Tasiast Mauritanie Ltd, a subsidiary of Canadian gold miner Kinross Gold Corporation, to supply a 60MW turnkey power plant for the second phase expansion of the Tasiast mine. The power plant will operate using six Wärtsilä 32TS engines. Commercial operation of the phase two expansion, which will raise output to 30,000 t/d, is expected to begin in Q3 2020. Wärtsilä supplied engines for the 19MW power plant serving the Tasiast mine’s phase 1B project.

The Agence Guinéenne pour l’Electrification Rurale (Ager) has issued a general procurement notice for technical assistance with the implementation of the national mini-grid development programme.

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa has announced it is installing solar plants at 11 of its sites in the country.The plants will have a combined capacity of 10.4MW, expected to produce around 18GWh/yr of electricity, and are scheduled to be completed by February 2019. South Africa’s Mulilo Group will build the facilities under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Investec was lead arranger for the project. Coca- Cola also uses a 1.33MWp solar plant at its bottling facility in Accra, Ghana.

The Foundation Rural Energy Services (FRES) invites bids by 7 March for the supply, installation and commissioning of a 75kWp solar photovoltaic plant in the village of Diaramana in the Ségou region of south-central Mali. The project, to be financed through the European Commission’s ACP-EU Energy Facility 10th European Development Fund, requires the solar plant’s integration with a generator, which is to be supplied separately and connected to a mini-grid in the village.

The World Bank Group’s International Development Association has approved a $375m loan for its Ethiopian Electrification Programme (ELEAP), the World Bank announced on 1 March. This will support the country’s National Electrification Programme (NEP), which aims to achieve universal electricity access by 2025 and is expected to require $1.5bn over the next five years. The NEP was developed with World Bank support and launched in November 2017. It is intended to shift focus away from infrastructure development towards service delivery.

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is looking to expand its InfraCredit model, which was established in Nigeria in 2017 by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority and GuarantCo to provide credit enhancements to infrastructure companies to allow them to raise long-term capital from pension funds and institutional investors. Since then, the two founding sponsors have been joined by the Africa Finance Corporation and German development bank KfW. A number of initiatives are emerging to encourage investment by African institutions into infrastructure.

The Off-Grid Clean Energy Facility (OCEF) invites proposals by 22 May from private companies, NGOs, communities and other entities to demonstrate viable off-grid, clean energy solutions. The Millennium Challenge Account-Benin (MCA-Benin II) will provide funding totalling $12m for the successful projects. MCA-Benin II was created to implement the programme of a second grant agreement (compact) signed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, acting on behalf of the US government, in September 2015.

Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is inviting expressions of interest from potential administrators for the Rural Electrification Fund, which will provide capital grants to fund the REA’s rural electrification programme.

The second quarter of 2019 saw 1.8GW of generation capacity added to the grid in Africa. This was a notable increase on Q1, which saw the slowest growth this decade when compared with quarterly averages from previous years. However, 794MW resulted from a unit coming online at the long-delayed Medupi coal power plant in South Africa, which has been bringing online new units periodically since 2015 and has been under construction since 2007.

After winning a tender in 2017 to provide electricity to 300,000 households in Togo over five years, off-grid solar company BBOXX has launched a new distributed energy service company (desco) to handle in-country operations. BBOXX Togo is owned by BBOXX alongside EDF and BBOXX equity partner Beam. BBOXX is already supplying electricity to 26,000 households, having opened around 20 shops employing 100 people.

Investec Asset Management announced on 30 November that a follow-on equity investment has been made by a consortium of investors in off-grid solar home system provider Mobisol. Investec, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation and Dutch development bank FMO initially bought into the company in late 2016, supporting the growth of Mobisol’s operations in Tanzania and Rwanda as well as a move into Kenya. Berlin-headquartered Mobisol has raised more than $25m over the last six months in debt and equity.

A forthcoming paper by Durham University researchers Andrew Crossland, Oghenetejiri Anuta, Neal Wade and Bronwyn McNeil, in partnership with a solar photovoltaic (PV) installer in Rwanda, has found that inappropriate use of off-grid solar PV systems installed at health facilities and schools by NGOs is pushing up costs and shortening lifespans. “The cycle life of the batteries people are experiencing is two years, but we think you could increase that to five or six years at a minimum simply by changing the way you operate and by changing the way you design the systems,” Crossland told African Energy.

Private equity firm Bamboo Capital Partners and impact investor Persistent Energy Capital announced on 6 November a strategic partnership to invest in companies active in the off-grid energy sector in Africa. Under the partnership, Bamboo Capital will invest in Persistent Energy through its $53m Oasis Fund.

Australian gold miner Resolute Mining has signed a joint development agreement with South Africa’s Ignite Energy Projects for a 40MW solar hybrid power plant at the Syama gold mine. The plant, which will combine solar photovoltaic (PV), battery and heavy fuel oil (HFO) technologies, will be built and financed as an independent power producer (IPP). Resolute said it would be the world’s largest off-grid, fully integrated hybrid power plant for a stand-alone mining operation when it enters full operation by the end of 2020.