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Impact investor All On Partnerships for Energy Access expects an equity and debt investment in Nigerian off-grid solar company Green Village Enterprises (GVE) to be completed by year-end, manager for external affairs and strategic partnerships at All On Ekaete Okoro told African Energy. GVE provides a range of services from solar home systems to mini-grids, and completed its first pilot project – a 6kW system in Rivers State providing power to 480 people – in 2013.

Feasibility studies for the 90MW Fomi dam project on the Niger River have been submitted to the Ministry of Mines and Geology and to President Alpha Condé by Yellow River Engineering Consulting Company director-general Yin Dewen. The project dates back to the colonial era (the site was discovered in 1922), and development will require $590m of financing, according to the feasibility studies.A source close to the project told African Energy that the main challenge was the dam’s impact on local communities, and its high cost relative to capacity was a consequence of efforts to minimise this.

Dasan Networks announced on 17 October that it had signed a letter of intent for an emergency power project in partnership with Electricité de France and hopes to use Central African Republic (CAR) as a springboard into the wider Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac) region. The project is part of a 2015-30 mid- and long-term investment programme supported by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) which will focus on the construction of power plants and power transmission facilities.

The Federal Ministries of Water Resources, and Power, Works and Housing, and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission invite expressions of interest by 31 July for the operation, maintenance and management of the 30MW Gurara Phase 1 hydropower plant in Kaduna State. The Gurara plant is part of the multipurpose Gurara Dam Water project, which comprises a 53-metre-high rockfill dam on the Gurara River and a 75km tunnel through the Kaduna and Usuma basins of Kaduna State and the Federal Capital Territory.

The World Bank Group announced on 25 July that it had suspended disbursements of funding to the Inga-3 Basse Chute and Mid-Size Hydropower Development Technical Assistance (TA) Project. “This follows the government of DRC’s decision to take the project in a different strategic direction to that agreed between the World Bank and the government in 2014,” the bank said. The decision follows the announcement of a new timetable for bidding on the scheme ordered by President Joseph Kabila Kabange.

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with Engie on 28 May for a 30MW solar photovoltaic plant in the Ali-Sabieh region. The solar scheme will be followed by other energy projects such as rural electrification.

The Lomé-based African Biofuel and Renewable Energy Company has extended the closing date for a tender to supply a 20MWc solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at Bissau and two 1MWc plants at Gabu and Canchungo. Bids are now due by 8 May. Lot 1 comprises construction of a 20MWc solar plant at Gardete, 8km from Bissau, as well as a 30kV connection to the Bôr substation. Bidders are invited to offer proposals for energy storage options.

The Rural and Renewable Energy Agency (RREA) has issued a general procurement notice for the construction of the 9.34MW Gbedin Falls run-of-river hydropower plant and associated infrastructure. Bidding documents are expected to be available from March for the related construction, equipment supply and consultancy contracts, which will also include the electrification of communities close to the existing distribution network, and capacity building for hydropower plant development and management, according to the notice published on 18 February.

Renewable energy developer Lekela, a joint venture between developer Mainstream Renewable Power and private equity firm Actis, announced on 30 July that the 158.7MW Taiba N’Diaye wind power project has reached financial close. The plant will be located about 70km north of Dakar and will use 46 3.45MW Vestas wind turbines to generate around 450GWh/yr. Ground-breaking is expected in the coming weeks, Lekela business development director for Northern and francophone Africa Julian Horn told African Energy.

The Central Electricity Board (CEB) has launched a tender for the design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of 14MW of battery storage. The systems are to be located at four substations: 4MW at Jin Fei, 2MW at La Tour Koenig, 4MW at Anahita and 4MW at Wooton. All four systems are to be running within a year of the contract being awarded. The batteries will be able to provide power at their rated capacity for at least 15 minutes to help stabilise the grid.

Italy’s Enertronica Group has acquired a second 6MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project at Okatope, and is reported to have begun construction on its first 6MW project at Trekkopje, a former uranium mine in Erongo region. The plants are among the first of 14 preferred bidders to have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with state utility NamPower under the country’s renewable energy feed-in tariff (REFiT) scheme, which provides a base rate of N$1.37 (US$0.088c)/kWh. They are the latest in a series of small-scale renewable power projects following French developer Innovent’s Namibian subsidiary Innosun, which is developing the 4.5MW Omaruru solar PV facility which signed a PPA late last year, and the 6MW Lüderitz wind farm.

As Africa enters the 2020s, issues of climate change and sustainability have gained greater urgency even if not everyone agrees on the way ahead. With desertification and water shortages affecting many regions, Africa has joined the stop-start transition away from a carbon-based economy; the percentage of on- and off-grid renewables is growing in the energy mix, with solar, and to a lesser extent wind, taking a lead, promoted by large public procurement projects and ever more private initiatives.

A host of development finance institutions (DFIs) are lining up to support approximately 1.5GW of solar photovoltaic projects in the second round of Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company’s solar feed-in tariff (FiT) programme. Many of the 33 candidate projects that are still in the running are expected to reach financial close in August or September, before a 27 October deadline. The Benban solar park in Upper Egypt, where the projects will be located, will become the largest installation of its kind in the world and will raise hopes of establishing a commercially competitive solar industry in the country.

The dispute over the management of Moroccan renewables developer Platinum Power has shifted into a new phase. A 21 March decision by the Casablanca Commercial Court allowing the company to continue trading means that it is now up to a wide group of stakeholders to chart a route out of its difficulties. Chief among these are the company’s creditors, but they also include the shareholders, judicial authorities and even the government.Platinum is developing the Tayaboui and Gao hydro projects in Côte d’Ivoire and the Makay hydro plant in Cameroon.

The Bambous solar photovoltaic power plant has begun operating in the western Rivière Noire district. With peak output of 15.2MW, it is the first utility-scale solar facility to be built in the country. Germany’s Tauber Solar Energietechnik GmbH and Mauritian firm Sarako, founded in 2013 to develop solar energy in Mauritius and southern Africa, signed an energy supply agreement for the project with the Central Electricity Board (CEB) amid a flurry of renewable energy activity in mid-2013. Germany’s Conecon GmbH was the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project, which is owned by Sarako. Tianwei supplied the solar panels, while Switzerland’s ABB provided inverters and transformers.