Search results

The authorities have offered development support to an initial ten independent power producer schemes, in a policy shift designed to enhance the bankability of IPP projects and encourage more private sector players to contribute to Zimbabwe’s faltering electricity generation infrastructure. African Energy examines the new scheme and looks at the state of power generation throughout a country where peak demand outstrips available supply – a situation that has lately been worsened by declining water levels at the Kariba Dam.

With lithium output rising, the Zimbabwe government is pushing mining companies to carry out more local processing and value additions, as the Mnangagwa administration seeks to maximise the benefits of a new minerals extraction boom driven by Chinese demand.

DPA Southern Africa has broken ground on the Bloemfontein solar PV plant in Free State, which will supply power to Africa Data Centre sites in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Invictus Energy has signed an agreement with gold miner Dallaglio Investments and manufacturer Himoinsa to develop a gas-fired power plant to supply the Eureka gold mine, using gas from the Cabora Bassa Basin.

Zimbabwean agro-industrial company Nhimbe Fresh has announced the completion of work on its 1.9MW solar PV project to supply its estates in Marondera.

Kibo Energy has entered into a ten-year take-or-pay conditional power purchase agreement (PPA) with an unnamed industrial business park developer in Gauteng province. Dublin-registered Kibo announced on 14 February that the PPA was for a 2.7MW plastic-to-syngas plant.

The amount of electricity that households and industrial customers can feed into Zimbabwe’s national grid through net metering has been increased from 100kW to 5MW, following the gazetting on 11 March of amendments to the Electricity (Net Metering) Regulations of 2018.

Daystar Power Energy Solutions is installing a 350kwp solar project at Lagos Business School. The project is being financed through the Sustainable use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (Sunref), an initiative funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

An upgraded solar PV plant for Gold Fields’ South Deep Mine in South Africa is on schedule to be commissioned during Q3 2022, after construction of the ZAR715m ($42.4m) plant started in Q3 2021

Africa GreenCo has announced its intention to procure an additional 80MW of renewable power from Zambia and up to 500MW of renewable energy from other Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) countries, as it accelerates its plans for regional development.

Among the most eye-catching parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech on 25 July was a commitment to remove the threshold above which a generation licence is required. African Energy takes a look at the implications of the announcement.

Norgold Group has commissioned a 33MW heavy fuel oil (HFO) power plant at its Lefa gold mine project in Guinea. The $30m project will cut the mine’s fuel consumption electricity production by 15% and engine oil by 30% and result in a 17,000-ton reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions.

The planned merger of Nigeria’s Starsight Energy and South Africa’s SolarAfrica reflects the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector’s continued rise, driven by the persistence of unreliable and expensive grid power in many African markets. Solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is rapidly growing as a source for C&I, according to trends identified by African Energy Live Data.

Nigeria’s Starsight Energy and South Africa’s SolarAfrica have announced plans to merge in a deal which, if approved by regulators, will join two of Africa’s largest commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable power developers into a pan-continental player with a portfolio of over 220MW of operated and signed generation capacity.

Solar PV plants supplying São Tomé International Airport and Príncipe Airport are expected to enter commercial operations later this year, Portuguese project developer Cleanwatts told African Energy Live Data in mid-January.