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Supermajor Shell has acquired Nigerian commercial and industrial (C&I) developer Daystar Power for an undisclosed sum. The Lagos-headquartered firm’s co-founders and management team will remain in situ. Daystar also announced plans to expand into southern and eastern African markets.

A newly-commissioned mini-grid on Lake Victoria is acting as a testbed for the French energy giant’s approach to mini-grids, with a focus on promoting industrial development to boost electricity use, writes Dan Marks

Local developer New Sahara Ventures’ two off-grid solar PV plants have suffered delays due to shortages of foreign currency and the escalating price of solar equipment. The regional-focused renewables company is the turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the 5.5MW Guruve solar park in Mashonaland Central province. While the project could have finished earlier, chief executive Trymore Sharata said he now expected completion by December.

The PIDG group is pushing its credentials as a powerful support for early-stage developments with significant business flow of renewables projects. A solar project in Burkina Faso is the latest beneficiary, writes Marc Howard.

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.

Solar off-grid developer Winch Energy has secured $100m of investment to fund its African expansion plans. The company’s business model aims to develop projects quickly and at sufficient scale to make them commercially viable, writes Marc Howard

A report from off-grid solar industry association Gogla shows significant falls in sales of household solar products in H1 2020 as Covid-19 slowed ­progress. The Global Off-grid Solar Market Report for H1 2020 shows sales of solar lighting products – including lanterns, multi-light systems, and solar home systems – fell by 26% compared with H1 2019, to the lowest volumes since 2014.

Madrid-headquartered Ric Energy has completed a 1.4MWp/4.5MWh solar PV mini-grid in Mzuzu in Malawi's Northern Region.

The Malawi Off-Grid Market Development Fund (OGMDF) – also known as the Ngwee Ngwee Ngwee Fund – has awarded five financing agreements to local privately-held, off-grid solar companies Yellow, Vitalite Group, Zuwa Energy, Green Impact Technologies and StarTimes.

Finland’s Wärtsilä Corporation on 20 March announced the completion of a 15MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at the Iamgold Essakane mine in north-east Burkina Faso. The inauguration on 16 March was overseen by President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.Comprising nearly 130,000 solar PV panels, the plant will add to an existing 55MW heavy fuel oil plant to create what the developers describe as the largest hybrid PV-diesel plant in the world, and one of the largest solar facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.