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The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) has issued a general procurement notice for assistance with preparing a 200MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez as well as capacity building

The New and Renewable Energy Agency (NREA) has extended the deadline for a tender for six pieces of land on the Gulf of Suez, each suitable for a 100MW wind farm. Egypt aims to meet 20% of power demand from renewable energy sources by 2020, including 12% from wind, representing 7,200MW. The country has installed wind capacity of 550MW and NREA plans to tender 4,825MW of private wind projects.

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) and Dutch development bank FMO are jointly lending $29.3m of senior debt with a 12-year term to refinance the 13MW Bugoye hydroelectric power plant in western Uganda. The refinancing agreements were signed on 13 July, with financial close expected around four weeks later. Proceeds from the refinancing will be used to repay EAIF the balance of its original loan to the project, fund repair work and repay construction loans made by the project sponsor, the Africa Renewable Energy Fund (Aref), managed by Berkeley Energy.

CrossBoundary Energy has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 650kW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) facility to supply Heineken’s Nigerian Breweries Plc brewery in Ibadan. CrossBoundary has been pioneering a portfolio approach to small-scale projects in Africa, with Nigerian Breweries the eighth agreement it has signed in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector. CrossBoundary vision and delivery lead Kathleen Jean-Pierre told African Energy the fund currently holds the largest portfolio of commercial solar assets under construction or operating in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.

President João Lourenço has issued a decree modifying the contract for the construction of the 2,172MW Caculo Cabaça dam with the removal of companies associated with controversial businesswoman Isabel dos Santos. Decree 79/18, dated July 12 and signed by Lourenço, states that the contract must be modified to remove the consortium of China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC), Niara Holding and Boreal Investment, and give sole rights to CGGC.

Rwanda inaugurated its first utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at a ribbon-cutting event on 5 February. The 8.5MW park, developed by Netherlands-based, US-owned Gigawatt Global at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwamagana District, about 60km from Kigali, was commissioned in September 2014, increasing Rwanda’s generation capacity by around 6%. Electricity is being fed into the grid under a 25-year power purchase agreement signed in July 2013. The landmark $23.7m project, the first independent power project to commission in the country, was financed by a consortium of equity partners and debt providers. Dutch development bank FMO arranged the senior debt package.

Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) has invited bids by 3 January for the refurbishment of generators and ancillary works for the 18MW El Kansara hydropower plant in the northwestern region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra. The contract, to be financed from a loan provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for ONEE’s hydro rehabilitation project, will entail the supply and installation of new rotor windings, new structures and instrumentation for both generators as well as the disassembly and reassembly of rotor windings for both generators, and cleaning and maintenance of parts

The second Sustainable Energy for All forum (SE4All) in New York on 18-21 May heard that rapid global population growth threatens to outstrip increases in energy access and will require much more investment if ambitious plans to provide clean, affordable and reliable energy to all by 2030 are to be met. A reassessment by SE4All has determined that $1-2trn/yr is needed to meet the initiative’s 2030 access targets, up from an original estimate of $400bn/yr, according to World Bank Global Practice on Energy and Extractive Industries senior director Anita Marangoly George.

The 100MW Karoshoek concentrated solar power plant in the Northern Cape was commissioned on 30 November. The plant uses parabolic troughs with technology from Sener, which built the plant alongside Cobra Energia. The pair are responsible for operations and maintenance.

The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (OMVS) has given China Machinery Engineering Corporation a contract worth $276m to develop and finance the Gourbassi hydroelectric dam on the Falémé River, on the Senegal-Mali border. An engineering, procurement, construction and financing contract was signed on 26 June, according to an OMVS statement.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced on 7 March that its proposal for a $50m loan and $2.5m grant to support renewable energy in Zambia has been approved by the board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The funds will be used to finance renewable energy projects with total capacity of up to 100MW approved under the renewable energy feed-in tariff (ReFiT), which applies to projects smaller than 20MW. The AfDB said it expected to back primarily solar projects to help Zambia diversify away from hydropower.

Saudi Arabia’s Rayat Al-Mulabi group in partnership with Russia’s Yugneft is reported to have reached an agreement to develop the Tsengue-Lélédi hydropower project in north-eastern Gabon. Agreement was reached on the sidelines of the Arab-American Islamic Summit in Riyadh on 21 May during talks between President Ali Bongo Ondimba and a Russian-Saudi business delegation led by Laheq Ghannam Outibi of the Rayat Al-Mulabi Group, according to local media reports.

On 22 October Denham Capital’s GreenWish Partners announced that its 20MW Senergy II solar PV project has begun operating in Bokhol, near the border with Mauritania. The plant is expected to produce 34GWh/yr from 77,000 polycrystalline solar panels, supplying power to national utility Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal (Senelec). GreenWish said electricity from Senergy II will be sold at a price 40% lower than the average cost of generation in Senegal and that the project would not require subsidies. The plant will be connected to an existing transformer located only 75 metres from the site.

France’s GDF Suez and Morocco’s Nareva Holding began commercial operation at the 301MW Tarfaya wind farm on 8 December. The €450m facility comprises 131 2.3MW Siemens turbines covering an area of 8,900ha and is expected to have a high load factor of 45%. Construction at the site began in January 2013 and the farm has been brought online in 50MW tranches since June this year.

A cabinet meeting on 21 March adopted a draft decree approving development of the first 29.6MW phase of a 50MW solar plant in Sikasso on a build-own-operate-transfer basis. A tender process for a 50MW solar PV project at Sikasso was initiated in 2015. Mali-based company Power Pro, established by Omnium Invest and Atlantic Renewable Energy Partners, was selected as preferred bidder to develop the project in January 2016. In August 2017, Italy’s Building Energy acquired a majority stake in Power Pro and is now managing the project.