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Eskom has given South Africa’s Romano Group an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a 360kW peak solar photovoltaic system to be installed on the roof of Eskom’s Megawatt Park head office in Johannesburg. So far in 2013, Romano has commissioned four rooftop PV projects in South Africa: two in Cape Town and two in Johannesburg.

Berlin-based pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar provider Mobisol announced on 27 June that it has acquired Lumeter, one of the largest providers of PAYG software for the off-grid solar industry. Mobisol said the combined company creates an unrivalled player with strong pricing power and expertise in the metering sector for stand-alone solar systems and mini-grids. Following this acquisition, the Mobisol platform now supports more than 500,000 people globally with access to clean, reliable and affordable power, Mobisol said.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has invited expressions of interest by 8 August from eligible consultants to prepare policy, regulations and an enabling framework to promote market-driven green mini-grids. The contract is to be financed from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, which is administered by the African Development Bank, for the Green Mini-Grid (GMG) Country Support Programme.

The Ministry of Energy has awarded two contracts for projects within the framework of the private sector-based access expansion component of the World Bank-financed Electricity Access and Services Expansion programme. A consortium of the US-based National Rural Electric Cooperative Association International, Spain’s MRC Consultants and local engineering consultancy VSI Afrique has been awarded a $1.2m contract to develop a national geospatial plan for least-cost electrification of the country by 2040, accompanied by an implementation strategy and an investment prospectus for 2021-25.

Impact investment platform Energise Africa says that since its 2017 launch it has raised more than £14m ($17m) through crowdfunding for energy access businesses in Africa. Energise Africa is part of Lendahand Ethex Ltd, a joint venture between the United Kingdom’s Ethex Investment Club and Netherlands- based Lendahand Finance BV.

Off-grid solar start-up Zonful Energy says it has connected 3,480 households under a pay-as-you-go-solar credit scheme in rural Zimbabwe that is being rolled out from a $50,000 loan sourced from US non-profit lender Kiva. Chief executive William Ponella said his company, which launched the country’s first known pay-as-you-go-solar credit scheme in March in partnership with mobile giant Econet Wireless, aimed to switch on about 380,000 households by 2020.

Saudi-owned Acwa Power has bought into the cryptocurrency trend by becoming the first major developer to adopt a reward programme for solar generation. SolarCoin provides digital tokens for every MWh of solar energy produced. Acwa Power said the deal would “provide a supplementary means of payment for goods and services”. SolarCoin operates like other cryptocurrencies, which have to be earned or ‘mined’ in some way. Bitcoin is mined by decrypting a digital code, which requires a large amount of computer power.

CrossBoundary Energy has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 650kW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) facility to supply Heineken’s Nigerian Breweries Plc brewery in Ibadan. CrossBoundary has been pioneering a portfolio approach to small-scale projects in Africa, with Nigerian Breweries the eighth agreement it has signed in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector. CrossBoundary vision and delivery lead Kathleen Jean-Pierre told African Energy the fund currently holds the largest portfolio of commercial solar assets under construction or operating in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.

The second Sustainable Energy for All forum (SE4All) in New York on 18-21 May heard that rapid global population growth threatens to outstrip increases in energy access and will require much more investment if ambitious plans to provide clean, affordable and reliable energy to all by 2030 are to be met. A reassessment by SE4All has determined that $1-2trn/yr is needed to meet the initiative’s 2030 access targets, up from an original estimate of $400bn/yr, according to World Bank Global Practice on Energy and Extractive Industries senior director Anita Marangoly George.

Off-grid solar power company Jumeme has released a tender for the supply of solar photovoltaic panels, inverters, cables and metal for the construction of two 1MW solar plants, one in Sumbawanga in the Rukwa region and one in Mpanda in Katavi. The project is being funded by the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. Submissions are due by 4 October 2018. Contact: [email protected]

The African Development Bank (AfDB)-administered Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa has approved an $840,000 grant to support the introduction of renewable energy mini-grids. The project will be implemented by state utility Rwanda Energy Group and includes feasibility studies for 20 small hydropower sites along with a plan to encourage local private sector developers. “Given the low 5% rural access rate to electricity in Rwanda, combined with gradual population growth and significant untapped renewable energy potential, green mini-grids can provide robust and cost-effective energy access solutions,” said AfDB manager for environment and climate change Kurt Lonsway.

Malawi is racing to reduce a supply deficit that could top 150MW next year. The country experienced a nationwide blackout in early March after the 130MW Kapichira and 36MW Nkula A hydropower plants had to be switched off to reduce the risk of damage due to flooding. Daily load-shedding has been made worse by a substantial reduction in water levels at Lake Malawi, which affects hydropower projects on the Shire River.

Namibia is pushing ahead with plans to secure NamPower amid competition from distributed power providers and reduce reliance on imports, which currently account for around half of power consumption. In early May, the Ministry of Mines and Energy published its Electricity Supply Industry Market Framework, a new market structure allowing independent power producers (IPPs) to sell directly to large customers. The framework was approved by cabinet in mid-April and the Electricity Control Board (ECB) is drawing up rules which will come into effect on 1 September.

The Rural Electrification Agency is seeking expressions of interest from consultants for a Grid Rural Electrification Project in western, northern, central and eastern Uganda, funded by the Islamic Development Bank. The consultant will provide project management and construction supervision for the installation of some 1,106km of medium-voltage overhead lines, 678km of low-voltage networks, 673 distribution transformers and 9,772 last-mile consumer connections. Firms must express interest by 22 July. Contact: Head, Procurement & Disposal Unit, Rural Electrification Agency, Plot 10, Windsor Loop, PO Box 7317, Kampala, Uganda. Tel: +256-312-318 100. Email: [email protected]. Web: www.rea.or.ug

The UK’s BBOXX has reached agreement with the government to supply 300,000 solar home systems in Togo over the next five years. The government’s Vision 2030 programme aims to provide universal access to electricity. The population stands at 7m people, of which 700,000 households are living without access to the grid, although 66% of the population has access to a mobile phone. BBOXX will seek to roll out the first 10,000 systems across rural areas over the next 12 months.