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Faced with a reduced share of the Nile’s waters, Egypt is considering setting up a joint venture to produce 1,700MW of hydroelectric power in Uganda, Egyptian newspapers reported on 8 December

The multi-donor Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has announced an agreement to provide Nigeria with $50m towards an African Development Bank-supported programme to promote investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency through local banks.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development invites expressions of interest by 16 April from consultants to assist with modelling and mapping injection capacity for renewable energy into the transmission and distribution grids of Morocco. The assignment aims to ensure that planned new renewable energy generation will maintain the security and balance of the grid and not affect the technical and economic performance of the national power generation and transmission system.

Progress towards drilling for steam by Corbetti Geothermal Company, the launch of tenders for the 100MW Metehara solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power project (IPP) and the World Bank Scaling Solar programme’s requests for developers to prequalify to install 250MW at two sites suggest that Ethiopia is accelerating efforts to diversify its hydro-dominated energy mix and move a key strategic sector onto a market footing. 
But members of the five developer groups waiting on the Metehara decision, and other potential investors attracted to Ethiopia’s status as one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, still complain that project implementation moves rather too slowly.

Zambia’s Zesco has announced plans to raise up to $1.4bn on international financial markets for the $2bn, 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower hydro project, raising concerns about government debt. “We are expected to go on the open market with the help of transaction advisers and talk to sovereign countries on financing the $1.4bn,” managing director Cyprian Chitundu told a parliamentary committee. Speaking shortly before he was moved to the Ministry of Energy and Water Development, Chitundu said the transaction was planned for June. Zesco planned to issue a construction tender in around two months.

Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) has invited bids by 16 January 2019 for the rehabilitation of valves and ancillary works for the 17MW Daourat storage hydropower plant on the Oum Er-Rbia River near Settat. The plant, which is equipped with two 8.5MW turbines, was commissioned in 1950.

African solar power provider Daystar Power has secured $10m in investment from Verod Capital Management and Persistent Energy Capital and has lined up an additional $16m in debt financing to accelerate its expansion across West Africa. The deal will allow Daystar Power to expand its offering for commercial and industrial customers across the region, providing corporate clients with a reliable supply of clean solar energy while significantly reducing their operating costs and minimising the use of diesel generators.

Apparently enraged by the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) decision on 29 December to approve an 8.53% increase in the power tariff – substantially less than the 18.19% increase Tanesco requested in its October application and on the back of a small price cut in April 2016 – President John Magufuli ordered the decision to be overturned and sacked Tanesco managing director Felchesmi Mramba on New Year’s Day. Magufuli said in a statement: “It’s unacceptable that while we are making plans to build manufacturing industries and ensure more citizens have access to electricity... that someone else uses his position to increase power tariffs.”

Minister for water, irrigation and energy Alemayehu Tegenu has announced that Ethiopian Electric Power will begin generating power from its controversial 1,870MW Gibe III dam in H2 this year as long as the annual wet season sufficiently fills its 11.8bcm reservoir. The dam, which at 243 metres is Africa’s tallest, will begin producing 187MW from one of its ten turbines, with the intention of starting up an additional turbine each month thereafter.

Independent power producer Solgas Energy says it has secured $7m for the construction of a grid-connected 5MW solar plant at Cross Mabale in Hwange and expects to complete construction by December. Solgas Energy chief financial officer Tafadzwa Mundicha said the company reached full financial close in February 2018 but had struggled to access foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe until government abandoned the local RTGS currency’s 1:1 parity with the US dollar in February this year.

Portugal’s Soares da Costa is to finance, build, own and operate 12 small hydropower plants with a combined capacity of about 30MW, at a total cost of around 3m ($4.4m). Fernando Nogueira, the company’s director in São Tomé, said STP’s total installed capacity would be quadrupled once all 12 plants were in operation. Under the project, Soares da Costa will also operate two existing small hydro schemes. Construction of the first plant – Roca Bombaim, with an installed capacity of 4MW – was launched at a ground-breaking ceremony held on 23 January.

In an economy where only 20% of the population has access to sustainable, modern energy services, even according to government data, access campaigners see considerable upside for pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar solutions. The Power for All Zimbabwe advocacy group sees huge potential, but estimates the off-grid sector’s market penetration at only 3%. According to sources canvassed by African Energy, the limited availability of finance for operators and consumers is stifling the sector’s potential as Zimbabwe looks to significantly improve its services delivery in the post-Mugabe period.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced on 27 March that it had awarded a grant to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining to fund a feasibility study for a hydropower project on the Luweya River. The study for a 15MW run-of-river system in the Nkhata Bay District of Malawi’s Northern Region will be carried out by Texas-based Water Wheel International. The project could be expanded to 35MW in a second phase.

Lekela Power announced on 13 February that it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) for a 250MW wind farm project in the Gulf of Suez, 30km north-west of Ras Gharib. Financial close is expected later this year, and the project is expected to be operational in 2021.The $325m project is part of the government’s build, own, operate scheme. Egypt has a target of achieving 20% renewable power in its overall energy mix by 2022.

Rwanda’s style of governance was a positive factor in developing Gigawatt Global’s solar PV project. Developer Chaim Motzen told the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa’s annual conference in November that, “from the time we started negotiations [February 2013] to full production there were three ministers of infrastructure, two [ministers of state for] energy, three Rwanda Development Board heads and three heads of the utility”. Whereas in most countries such frequent churn in key institutions would be seen as a sign of instability, he claimed that in Rwanda it pointed to President Paul Kagame’s rigorous demands for maximum performance.