Search results

France’s Neoen announced on 19 December that it had reached financial close on its 41MWp Metoro solar PV project. Portugal’s Efacec has started to build the plant, which will be the second utility-scale solar project supplying Mozambique’s northern grid when it begins operating this year. Scatec Solar’s 40MWp Mocuba solar PV plant started operating in late July 2019.

Eni and the government of Angola signed a concession agreement in Rome on 13 November for a 50MWp PV plant in Namibe province, where Eni supports rural development projects. The plant will be built by Solenova, a renewable energy joint venture between Eni and Sonangol, and will be connected to the transmission grid in the south of the country. The implementation of the 25MWp first phase will allow a reduction in diesel consumption estimated at around 13,500m3/yr, reducing electricity production costs and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by around 20,000 t/yr of CO2 equivalent, Eni said.

The World Bank Group’s International Development Association on 28 February approved a $100m grant to support rural electrification, along with a $60m grant for a community development programme supporting projects among vulnerable populations. The $100m grant will support the Solar Energy in Local Communities (Soleil) project – also known as Nyakiriza – which aims to almost double the electrification rate nationwide.The Soleil project aims to connect more than 91,000 families, 4,000 small businesses, 500 schools and 400 health centres to mini-grids or standalone solar systems with combined capacity of around 17MW.

The European Union will provide E106m ($119m) for a clean energy programme to be implemented by National Water and Electricity Company. This includes E65m under a 25-year concessional loan from the European Investment Bank and a E41m grant from the European Union budget. The project will also be supported by E35.7m of financing from the World Bank. The project aims to develop a 20MW solar photovoltaic plant at Jambur near Banjul and 400km of distribution infrastructure.

France’s Eranove Group, in partnership with state investment fund Fonds Gabonais d’Investissements Stratégiques (FGIS), has invited expressions of interest to construct the Ngoulmendjim storage plant. Prequalification bids are sought by 31 October for the design and construction of the project, which will be located on the Komo River, about 125km east of Libreville in the north-western province of Estuaire.The work is divided into three lots, to be awarded under a single engineering procurement and construction contract.

Shanta Mining Company has given Tanzanian ground-mount solar company Redavia a contract to expand the solar capacity at the New Luika gold mine in Mbeya region. The expansion project is the second phase of a two-phased process to increase New Luika’s solar hybridisation use and reduce fuel costs. The new 609kW plant will produce around 943,950kWh/yr in addition to the 63kW that was installed as a pilot plant in 2014. The current 63kW plant produces around 95,750kWh/yr but, once the new plant is up and running, it will produce an estimated 1,040,000 kWh/yr.

A renewable energy impact fund headed by former Scatec Solar head of business development Terje Osmundsen has reached its $8m first threshold commitment. Empower Invest will invest equity in 1-10MW renewable projects in developing countries, using a fund-based model to overcome the challenges of project financing smaller schemes. The series A share issue will allow Empower to invest in its first four to five projects. A $40m series B issue is planned for 2020.

UK-based eleQtra invites expressions of interest by 7 February for the provision of international and local legal advisory services and environmental and social consultancy services for the development and financing of the Namaacha wind park.

Delegates and speakers from across the continent responded with a combination of caution and optimism to the challenge posed by the Egyptian government’s Africa 2016 conference on 20 February to “accelerate private sector engagement and investment within Africa”. Following an opening address by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, African Development Bank president Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina said that while African economies had proved resilient, the amount of foreign currency-denominated debt was a potential problem. “Africa must not fall into a debt trap,” he said, urging fiscal consolidation, the broadening of export markets within the continent and mobilising domestic reserves to finance projects.

With projects in 15 African countries close to financial close, Dubai-based Access Power MEA has teamed up with Luxembourg and Paris-based Eren Group for its next phase of expansion. Access chairman Reda El Chaar told African Energy the company was looking to leverage funding for a new round of projects. Under the agreement, Eren will acquire a strategic equity stake in Access and a seat on the Access board. On 4 January, Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy prequalified the Access Infra Africa consortium to develop large-scale wind and solar power plants in the first round of the country’s renewable energy procurement programme.

French renewables developer InnoVent has taken its Oualidia wind plant to financial close and started construction despite having no long-term power purchase agreement. It has overcome the hurdles that have prevented many private sector projects developed under renewable energy law 13-09 from advancing by deploying secondhand equipment to keep down costs, and by crowdfunding part of the debt finance.According to data posted on the French crowdfunding website Lendosphere, InnoVent is already building the 35MW Oualidia wind plant (originally conceived as two 18MW plants).

Dubai-based Access Consultants DMCC and France’s EREN Renewable Energy SA have signed a financing agreement with Dutch development finance institution FMO for a 10MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project. The pair were selected as preferred bidders in the country’s Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs (GET FiT) scheme in December 2014 and project sources say they hope to reach financial close on the project before Christmas. Construction is expected to take six to seven months.

Engineering work for the 2,069MW Lauca hydropower dam on the Kwanza River is 77% complete and the electromechanical works are 46% complete, the state Médio Kwanza Development Office (Gamek) said at the end of April. The main contractor, Odebrecht Infraestructura, said in late 2015 that the first two of the six 334MW turbines should be installed in July 2017 by Andritz Hydro, with turbine tests following in August and at least two turbines operational by end-2017. The aim is to fill the 188km² reservoir during the first four months of 2017.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation is to begin construction of the Tedzani IV hydropower plant on the Shire River this October, following the signing on 18 July of a contract with the newly established Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco). The 18MW expansion of the run-of-river plant, with the addition of a new powerhouse and individual water intake, is due to be commissioned in 2020. The project will be carried out in partnership with Turkey’s Calik Enerji as exclusive subcontractor and with the support of Tokyo Electric Power Services as consultant.

Using equipment and management from Spanish giant Gamesa, the local subsidiary of Italy’s Italcementi Group