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The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has approved a $1m grant to fund feasibility studies for two 17MW solar photovoltaic plants near Pá and Kodéni. The plants are being developed by Denham Capital’s BioTherm Energy and its partner French firm Canopy, via a project company called Société de Production d’Energie Solaire de Kodéni. The studies will be carried out by United States’ Tetra Tech. The projects will sell power to state utility Sonabel under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Electricity Development Corporation (EDC) invites expressions of interest from consultants by 7 June to carry out a study for the development of the hydropower potential of the Sanaga River Basin.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company began receiving power from the first 100MW unit of the 200MW Dema emergency power plant in mid July. Since the government began talks with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group last year, there has been a concerted push to improve the country’s woeful power situation. Alongside Dema, a 120MW emergency plant is planned for Mutare, tenders have been reissued for the refurbishment of the country’s moribund coal power plants, as well as a solar tender and a feed-in tariff for renewable energy independent power producers.

Anjeed Kafanchan Solar Ltd has received provisional approval from the Transmission Company of Nigeria to expand its planned 10MW pilot solar power plant in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, to 100MW after finding that the full capacity could be evacuated from the 132/33kVA Jos-Kafanchan substation. Anjeed Kafanchan is a subsidiary of Kaduna-based Anjeed Innova Group, whose president Thomas Sherman told African Energy the company was in talks to move to full grid connection approval.

A fifth 334MW turbine came online on 5 July at the Laúca hydropower plant. This means that five of the six turbines are now operating, with the last expected in H1 2020. A second powerhouse taking advantage of ecological flow will add 65.5MW, taking total installed capacity to 2,070MW. The $4bn plant is being built by Brazil’s Odebrecht, with Bardell and Andritz supplying electromechanical equipment. The first turbine began operating in August 2017 after five years of construction.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is considering financing the construction of three wind farms: at Midelt in the Atlas Mountains (150MW), near Tangier (100MW) and at Essaouira (200MW) on the Atlantic coast. The projects’ total cost is estimated at €704m ($952m), with the EIB funding coming in the form of a loan to the parastatal Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE). The EIB has not yet decided the size of its contribution to the projects, which are part of the 850MW second phase of the Moroccan Wind Programme.

South Africa's Energem Resources gets involved with the Stieglers Gorge hydropower project

Contracts have been awarded for the hybridisation of 13 diesel plants in Niger using solar PV. The projects are part of the Niger Solar Electricity Access Project, which is backed by the World Bank Group’s International Development Association.

The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) launched a public consultation on the long-awaited Renewable Energy Development Zones at the end of July. The zones were intended to put in place fast-track environmental permiting for renewable power projects in areas that are both conducive to generation and close to Eskom’s grid.

The African Union Commission has received 17 expressions of interest (EoIs) for the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility’s sixth application round. The EoIs, for projects in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya,Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, consisted of ten surface studies and seven drilling programmes, and were submitted by both private and public entities. Bid opening took place on 3 August.