Search results

The World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) on 9 May announced guarantees worth $73m for the 80.5MW Noupoort, 137.74MW Khobab and 136.7MW Loeriesfontein II wind farms. All three projects were selected in the third round of the country’s renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) announced on 4 July that it has committed $2.25m in project preparation funding for off-grid solar company Apalia24. The Mauritius-based company, which was founded in 2018 by Guy Badjoko and Finn Helge Topinrud, bundles pay-as-you-go off-grid power with broadcasting, including FM radio and digital television.

Ireland’s Mainstream Renewable Power has announced that ground-breaking has taken place at its 80MW Noupoort wind farm in the Northern Cape. The project, in Umsobomvu municipality, is scheduled to begin commercial operation by mid-2016. Noupoort is expected to produce around 305,000MWh/yr of power. Turbines are being supplied by Siemens Wind Power and the 99-metre-high towers will be the first to be manufactured at the new Gestamp wind turbine tower factory.

Solar Era Holdings has invited bids by 16 June for the engineering, procurement and construction of the first phase of a 25MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the central city of Bo. The locally based independent power producer, owned by UK-based Africa Growth and Energy Solutions (AGES), is developing the capacity in two phases. Phase 1 is a 5MW grid-connected PV facility, which will cost an estimated $9m. Phase 2 is a 20MW facility expected to be a hybrid solar-diesel-battery plant.

Bosch Projects has given South Africa’s Barloworld Power a contract to supply equipment for a 4MW biogas-to-power project in Bronkhorspruit, 78km north-east of Boksburg. The clean electricity produced by the project will be used for an automotive plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria. The Bronkhorspruit Biogas Power Plant Pty Ltd is an independent power producer formed by Bio2Watt, which has a contract to purchase waste from the Beefcor cattle farm. About 40,000 t/yr of cattle manure and a further 20,000 t/yr of mixed organic waste will be fed into two anaerobic digesters that will produce the biogas feedstock for a combined heat and power application using Caterpillar internal combustion gas generator sets.

Rare is the Inga contract that is signed on time, and even rarer is its implementation, but according to officials in Kinshasa, the governments of Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa should finally sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the sale of electricity from the future Inga III hydroelectric dam to Eskom when President Jacob Zuma visits Kinshasa in late October. DRC Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity officials announced on 27 September that Kinshasa was about to conclude its much-anticipated PPA with South Africa for the sale of 2,500MW from Inga III. This would allow for construction to start in October 2015. The DRC government anticipates the plant’s inauguration in 2020-21, with Eskom purchasing more than half of Inga III’s projected 4,800MW capacity. Katanga-based mining industries would take 1,300MW, while the rest of the vast country, including Kinshasa, would take the remaining 1,000MW.

Rehabilitation of three 11.9 MW units at the 47.6 MW Selingue hydropower dam on the Sankarani River is expected to start in February 2020. The work is being financed by the West African Development Bank (BOAD) with up to CFA25bn ($42.5m). An engineer from the Ingerop/Artelia consortium contracted by the BOAD to oversee the works told African Energy the first tests on the Voith Kaplan turbines (G1, G2 and G3) should start in February and work on handling equipment and overhead cranes should start by end-March.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) has committed support to a Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded project, costed at $6.5m, to help in building local capacities to manufacture solar energy systems and components. It will also promote the application of solar energy in Egyptian chemicals, agro-food and textile industries.

US developer Hydromine signed a letter of intent with the government and Eneo on 5 July for the development of the long-mooted Grand Eweng hydropower project. The parties will work together to finalise the terms of a power purchase agreement between the project company and the utility. The letter of intent also sets out the framework for development of the project on a build, own, operate and transfer model. Construction of the project, on the Sanaga River between Yaoundé and Douala in the eastern Littoral region, is expected to start within three years, with electricity generation starting in seven years.

Major new solar equipment manufacturing facilities being developed by AEG Power and Gestamp Solar Steel signal that local content requirements are already beginning to bear fruit. But manufacturers need stronger commitments from the government if South Africa is to experience real growth in the sector, writes Dan Marks

Industry regulator the Commission de Régulation de l’Electricité et du Gaz (Creg) has issued a build-own-operate tender for 150MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in the eastern wilayas on the northern edge of the Sahara. Participants must use Algeria-registered EPC and operations and maintenance contractors, and locally produced equipment.A key evaluation criterion will be the cost per kWh. Creg will set price ceilings, which it said would provide a “benchmark” for investors, while encouraging them to set prices as low as possible.

Diplomatic tension between Egypt and Ethiopia has risen in recent weeks as negotiations have stalled over the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) and the potential effect it will have on the reallocation of Nile River water rights. If the current rate of construction continues, the testing of power generation could begin next year, but technical studies on the best way to begin the water storage process have not yet been agreed.

The Mwadingusha hydropower plant on the Lufira River has begun supplying power to the national grid after the completion of rehabilitation work on the first of six turbine generators at the plant. Electricity from the 11MW unit will support development and exploration work at Kamoa, which is considered to be the world’s largest undeveloped high-grade copper deposit, Ivanhoe Mines announced on 13 September. Modernisation of Mwadingusha’s five other units is under way, it said. Once completed it is expected to restore Mwadingusha to its original installed capacity of about 71MW, the mining group added, without disclosing the scheduled completion date.

The Seychelles Energy Commission has issued a request for proposals to eight bidding groups which have prequalified to build, own and operate the country’s first floating solar photovoltaic (PV) facility and first independent power producer. The project will be located on Providence lagoon, Mahé Island, and have a capacity of 3.5-4MWac. Development will be financed by the winning bidder. Power will be sold through a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Public Utilities Corporation.

India’s Astonfield Renewable Resources has signed a power purchase agreement with the Central Electricity Board for two 2MW solar power plants, as part of the government’s 10MW solar photovoltaic (PV) programme. One plant will be located near Union Flacq and will be developed in partnership with Alteo Energy, while the second will be developed solely by Astonfield in La Gaulette. The projects will be developed on an independent power producer basis and Astonfield’s was one of three successful bids for the solar scheme out of a total of 56.