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Togo is embarking on a country-wide solar rural electrification programme to bring power to 293 towns and villages in the country’s five regions. Known in French as Programme de Valorisation de l’Energie Solaire, or Proves, the scheme envisages the installation of solar photovoltaic systems to electrify 293 towns and villages in the Savanes, Kara, Centrale, Plateaux and Maritime regions.

Ethiopian authorities say they have averted a planned armed attack on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project under construction on the Blue Nile near the Sudanese border. Deputy government spokesman Zadig Abrha told the state-owned Fana Broadcasting Corporation on 1 March that 20 members of the Benishangul Gumuz People’s Liberation Movement (BPLM) had been apprehended as they were heading for the dam site.

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) has approved a loan of $178.5m, alongside a grant of $24.5m from its Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program Trust Fund, to boost development of geothermal resources. The bank said the funding would be administered in two phases, with the first intended to confirm geothermal resources and boost capacity development, and the second aimed at developing the resource for power generation. The project is targeting two geothermal sites, Aluto and Alalobad. At Aluto, four IDA-financed wells will be drilled alongside 22 further wells of between 2,000 and 2,500 metres depth. At Alalobad, four IDA-financed wells will be drilled to explore the site and identify resource potential.

Chinese solar power product manufacturer JinkoSolar Holding Company Ltd announced in December that it had signed a deal with WBHO-Building Energy Ltd to supply solar photovoltaic (PV) modules with capacity of 81MW to the Kathu power project in Gamagara Municipality, Northern Cape.

The European Investment Bank in July approved a €72m ($81m) financing package for a €311m project to add another 70MW turbine to Kenya Electricity Generating Company’s Olkaria I geothermal complex in Naivasha district. The new unit will be sited next to units IV and V, both 70MW, which were commissioned in 2014. Units I, II and III are each 15MW and came online in 1981, 1982 and 1985 respectively.

China’s Yingli Green Energy Holding Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Yingli Green Energy Spain has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Senelec to build a 2MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Dakar. The facility will supply power to the new Diamniadio international conference centre, which will host the 15th Francophonie summit in November. Yingli will supply the PV modules for the project, which is expected to produce 3.7MWh/yr.

French energy giant Engie claims to have become the market leader in off-grid solar in Africa following the acquisition of Germany’s Mobisol. When the transaction closes, which is expected in October, Mobisol will join solar home system company Fenix International and mini-grid developer PowerCorner under the umbrella of Engie’s distributed power business. The company has been aggressively targeting the market with the intention of being able to provide the full range of electrification options to emerging countries.

US solar developer Renewvia Energy Corporation has teamed up with Singapore-based renewable energy investor Dream Projects Incubators (DPI) to develop solar micro-grids in Kenya and Nigeria. On 17 March, the two companies announced the formation of a special purpose entity to capitalise large portfolios of solar micro-grid projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The first ten projects have received capital support from the French Development Bank and the World Bank, according to the partners.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the construction of two solar power plants totalling 17MWp at Kaleo and Lawra in the Upper West Region on 4 February. The projects are being developed by the Volta River Authority with €22.8m ($25m) of funding from Germany’s KfW.A presidency statement said the 13MWp plant in Kaleo was due for completion by December, while the 4MWp project in Lawra would be completed in June. The projects, the first grid-connected solar power plants in the Upper West Region, will supply enough power for 32,000 households.

Eskom’s recent forum on the Transmission Development Plan 2015-24 (TDP) and Transmission Strategic Grid Study 2040 examined the planned shift in the transmission system, to accommodate changes to the generation mix from the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme and other projects. But challenges remain around the funding of new transmission corridors and uncertainty about which technologies will comprise the bulk of future generation. Concerns about the cost of connecting remote projects to the grid have been well rehearsed.

US-based solar developer Renewvia Energy Corporation announced on 21 September that its first two micro-grid facilities are up and running on the Islands of Ndeda and Ringiti in Kenya’s Lake Victoria region. The solar-battery micro-grids, which have a total system capacity of 30kW, are the first source of sustainable power supply available to the nearly 10,000 residents and businesses of the two islands.

Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco) has invited expressions of interest by 7 March for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a 10MWp scalable solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant, auxiliary equipment and associated works at Nanjoka in Salima district. The contract will entail the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the ground-mounted project, related civil works and the supply and installation of infrastructure to connect the plant to the Nanjoka substation in Salima, according to a tender notice published on 4 February.

Eskom group executive for transmission Thava Govender told the Africa Energy Indaba conference on 17 February that budget quotes containing binding grid connection terms needed for independent power projects (IPPs) to reach financial close will be sent to preferred bidders from the fourth and expedited fourth rounds of the renewable energy IPP procurement programme by April. IPP Office head of strategy Sandra Coetzee told African Energy that a request for proposals (RfP) for the fifth round is expected to be issued in March.

President Yoweri Museveni has launched construction of the 183MW Isimba hydro project on the River Nile. China International Water & Electric Corporation is building the dam with financing from the Export-Import Bank of China under an agreement reached between Uganda and China in July.

Uganda suffered a nationwide power outage on 14 April after a giant floating mass of vegetation blocked water intake screens at the Nalubaale hydropower station, putting the country’s three main power plants out of action. Eskom Uganda said the water weed island had been carried by rising water levels in Lake Victoria. Power was lost at the 380MW Kiira-Nalubaale complex, and at the 250MW Bujagali plant downstream.The outage meant a national broadcast by President Yoweri Museveni on the coronavirus crisis had to be delayed by an hour.