Search results

Egypt’s Elsewedy Electric signed a turnkey contract worth $45m with the Ministry of Energy and Dams on 3 December to build a 20MW solar PV plant with a 35MWh battery system. The project will be located in Nesitu County around 20km from Juba on a 250,000m2 site. The African Export-Import Bank will finance the project, which is expected online in 2020. It is expected to produce 29GWh/yr, supplying power to more than 58,000 homes and reducing CO2 emissions by around 12,000 t/yr. Construction is expected to take one year.

Developers are eager to get going after signing power purchase and other agreements to launch work on South Africa’s renewable energy independent power producers procurement programme, writes Dan Marks.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced on 20 December that the 47.5MW Bangweulu solar photovoltaic (PV) project has reached financial close. The project sponsors, France’s Neoen and the US’s First Solar, made waves last year when they bid a tariff of only 6.015c/kWh, fixed for 25 years, in the first round of procurement under the Scaling Solar initiative. Zambia’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has taken a stake in project company Bangweulu Power Corporation Ltd, which has now given notice to proceed with construction of the facility.

Morocco’s ambitious opening to renewables continues apace, with projects for wind and solar to supply private industry, as well as the Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) grid. In a potentially important agreement, leading local developer Nareva Holding – part of the SNI group, which has a major royal shareholding – will supply power generated by a wind farm to Nador-based steelmaker Sonasid from 2018.

Madagascar has commissioned its first integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) and storage facility. The project, which will serve the village of Belobaka, in the Bongolava region, about 290km from Antananarivo, was inaugurated on 27 October by President Hery Rajaonarimampianina. The pilot project, which comprises 720 PV modules as well as batteries with a storage capacity of 315kWh, was installed by local energy group Henri Fraise Fils & Cie in partnership with the US-based battery storage manufacturer Fluidic Energy, which supplied the integrated energy storage system.

Germany’s Conergy has received an order from Japan’s Takaoka Engineering Company Ltd to install a 210kW solar PV facility at a Japanese-funded desalination plant in Ben Guardane, to produce around 352MWh/yr of electricity. The plant will consist of 900 Conergy PowerPlus modules mounted on Conergy solar linear systems and 15 Conergy IPG T inverters.

The Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme (Nelsap) is inviting expressions of interest from consultants by 20 June to act as owner’s engineer to oversee the completion of the 80MW Rusumo Falls hydroelectric project. The project, on the Kagera River at the border of Rwanda and Tanzania, is under construction and is expected to be completed by July 2021. Owner’s engineer services are currently being carried out by a joint venture of Canada’s AECOM and France’s Artelia, whose contract expires in October 2019.

State-owned engineering and construction group PowerChina International Group Limited has applied for a licence to develop a 840MW hydropower plant on the Nile River that would expand Uganda’s installed power capacity by 40%. According to a licence application submitted this month, PowerChina wants to build the plant on a section of the Nile between lakes Kyoga and Albert in the north of the country.

The UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21), expected to run until 11 December, will officially involve 196 parties in its heavily secured Paris-Le Bourget site. While leaders, presided over by French President François Hollande and foreign minister Laurent Fabius, leave their officials to negotiate a global agreement to restrict carbon emissions, COP21 will also see a welter of new initiatives to promote renewable generation, energy access and improved efficiency in sub-Saharan Africa. Distributed, off-grid projects will play a significant role, as donors have come to recognise that insolvent national utilities are incapable of providing access to rural and peri-urban populations for decades to come.

Standard Bank has signed a R20bn ($2.16bn) funding support agreement for renewable energy projects in South Africa with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). ICBC is Standard Bank’s largest shareholder with a 20% stake. The deal is structured to provide the funding out of ICBC’s rand income, and aims to promote the use of renewable energy in South Africa in support of the government’s renewable energy programme, as well as raising awareness among Chinese suppliers.

Tendering is under way for the provision and commissioning of four sets of geothermal single flow back pressure units for the 20MW first phase of the Corbetti geothermal power project. Berkeley Energy has announced that a ten-week tender process began on 12 January and will be concluded in March. Berkeley manages the $200m Africa Renewable Energy Fund (AREF), which is expected to close in Q1 2015. AREF has acquired a majority stake in the Corbetti project, whose other investors are Iceland Drilling and Reykjavik Geothermal.

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities and Egyptian Electricity Holding Company to carry out a preliminary study and feasibility study for a series of wind and solar-powered water desalination projects in Egypt. The studies will be submitted to the Egyptian authorities to form the basis of future policy.

The 10MW Neusberg run-of-river hydroelectric power plant has begun commercial operations on the Orange River in the Northern Cape. The project is owned by Hydro 1 SA, Hydro Tasmania South Africa, Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Ltd and a community trust funded by the Industrial Development Corporation. It was selected as a preferred bidder in REIPPP2, and construction began in June 2013. “Hydropower is one of the few renewable sources of baseload energy generation,” said Hydro Tasmania director for Southern Africa Christoff le Grange.

African Investment Infrastructure Fund 2, managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), has sold its 14% stake in the 139MW Cookhouse wind farm and its 34% stake in the 75MW Reisa solar PV plant to AIIM’s Infrastructural, Developmental and Environmental Assets (Ideas) Managed Fund.

State water and electricity utility Jiro sy Rany Malagasy (Jirama) issued a call for expressions of interest (EoIs) on 30 March for its plan to concession the Volobé Toamasina hydroelectric and Mandroseza thermal plants for ten years, while the Ministry of Energy and Hydrocarbons issued an EoI on 10 April for a World Bank-funded contract to improve its management and prepare a medium-term investment plan.Starved of investment during the island’s political crisis, Jirama is confronted with an estimated $18m bill to maintain the Volobé and Mandroseza plants, whose malfunctioning was blamed for blackouts last year.