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InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, announced on 15 January that it has committed $3.1m to the 40MW Khoumagueli solar photovoltaic (PV) project. The commitment came with the signing of a joint development agreement with Solvéo Guinea Renewable Energy – the project company – and its owners Solvéo Energie SAS and Solvéo International Investments, both part of Solvéo Group. InfraCo Africa will take a 45% stake in the project, which is targeting financial close in Q1 2019 and commercial operations in Q1 2020, with the remainder held by Solvéo.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on 29 November that its board of directors had approved a loan of €150m ($177m) to help finance the 420MW Nachtigal hydroelectric project. Nachtigal will come online in 2022, increasing Cameroon’s installed capacity by 30% and helping to lower the cost of electricity.

The government has approved the disbursement of UGSh955bn ($366m) from the state budget to finance construction of the 600MW Karuma and 183MW Isimba hydropower projects, according to a report in the local daily New Vision on 8 September. The release of funds was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by President Yoweri Museveni in late August, following a report on the progress of the two projects by vice-president Edward Ssekandi, the report said. It quoted an unnamed government source as saying that the government decided to release the funds to avoid interruption of the works at the two sites on the Victoria Nile, which, contrary to reports, was on track.

The World Bank’s International Development Agency is considering a $100m loan for the Uganda Energy for Rural Transformation III (ERT-3) project. This aims to support investments in on- and off-grid projects and provide technical assistance. The government will provide $10m of financing, and an $8.9m grant from the Global Environment Facility is on the cards. ERT-3 will go to the World Bank board in July 2014, following the completion of appraisal in February.Faced with significant challenges in bringing grid power to small rural communities, Uganda failed to meet a government target of raising the rural electrification rate to 10% by 2010 from 1% in 2001.

The first 90MW turbine at the 275MW Soubré dam on the Sassandra River will start up by the end of March, according to CI-Energies director-general Amidou Traoré. All the turbines at the facility, which is being built by Sinohydro, will be fully operational in August, Traoré told reporters. Work began on the CFA331bn ($500m) project in 2013 (AE 270/7). Some 85% of the financing was provided through a loan from Export-Import Bank of China, with the balance met by the government of Côte d’Ivoire.

Germany’s Voith has signed a contract to supply electromechanical equipment to the 42MW Achwa River hydropower project on the border of Gulu and Pader districts. Work includes design, manufacturing, supply, transportation, testing and commissioning of all electromechanical parts. Achwa River is owned by Maji Power, a special purpose vehicle entirely owned by the Africa Renewable Energy Fund, which is managed by Berkeley Energy. It will comprise four vertical Francis turbines and vertical synchronous generators.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is appraising two separate loans for solar schemes being developed under the Egyptian feed-in tariff (FiT) programme, which aims to procure a total 2GW of solar power and 2GW of wind power in 2015-17.One is a €73m ($80m) loan for Engie for the construction and operation of two independent 50MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in Ben Ban, near Aswan in southern Egypt. The total cost of the development is estimated at €195m.

The heads of Africa50, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have signed an agreement to collaborate on the bank’s ambitious Desert to Power Programme for 10,000MW of solar projects in the Sahel. The Desert to Power initiative aims to develop 10,000MW of solar power systems across the Sahel, providing electricity to 250m people, including 90m off-grid. The initiative will also help protect the Great Green Wall of trees established as a buffer against desertification from being cut down for energy.

The question of how large Inga III should be has been raised by consultants retained to comment on the African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed study by EDF International and Aecom Technology Corporation’s Canada-based subsidiary Groupe RSW (AE 263/4). Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa have signed a preliminary agreement for Eskom to take 2.5GW from Inga III, with the rest to go to mining firms and local consumers, in the first of six phases of the 39GW-44GW Grand Inga project (AE 266/1, 265/9, 255/1).

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed a joint development agreement with an international consortium for a 120MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Lokoja, Kogi State. IFC InfraVentures will provide development funding and commercial and technical support through the Middle Band Solar One project company, an IFC statement said. The project company is owned by a consortium of Alten Energías Renovables’ Africa-focused subsidiary Alten Renewable Developments Africa, Germany’s Green Continent Partners Holding, and local firm Nemoante. Financial close is expected by Q4 2016.

As the dry season reduces water flow at the Kaléta dam, power cuts have led to riots in the city of Kindia, where demonstrators in at least two districts built barricades and burned tyres to demand the restoration of power supply. The police intervened to restore calm but the city remains tense. Load shedding in Conakry has even affected the central business district of Kaloum.

The European Investment Bank is considering a €23m ($31m) loan to the Société Nationale d’Electricité du Burkina (Sonabel) for the construction of a 30MW photovoltaic solar plant at Zagtouli, in the outskirts of Ouagadougou (AE 230/9). This amount represents about one third of the total cost of the project which is also financed by a €25m grant from the European Commission announced last April in Brussels after a meeting between minister of mines and energy and former Sonabel CEO Salif Kaboré, and EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. The Agence Française de Développement is contributing a concessional loan of €19m. According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, construction work should begin in 2014 and the plant should be operational by 2015.

Operation of Ethiopia’s oldest hydropower plant was handed back to state power utility Ethiopia Electric Power in mid-December following the completion of a two-year Chinese-led rehabilitation. An official handing-over ceremony was held on 15 December in the presence of minister of finance and economic cooperation Abraham Tekeste and Chinese ambassador La Yifan. The 6.6MW Aba Samuel plant on the Akaki River in the Awash river basin near Addis Ababa was rehabilitated by PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation under an engineering, procurement and construction contract, with grant financing of Y95m ($14m) from the government of China, according to a statement by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation.

The US’s Zoetic Global has signed a memorandum of understanding with Swaziland Electricity Company to install up to 200MW of hydrokinetic units at the country’s dams. Zoetic’s technical team and an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, whose name has not yet been released, hope to carry out assessments in September and October to determine the capacity to be installed at each dam, most likely Mnjoli, Maguga and Luphohlo. Negotiations over a power purchase agreement (PPA) will run in parallel.

The long-mooted Lom Pangar dam project will allow hydro plants on the Sanaga River to generate all year round, making energy-intensive projects such as aluminium smelters feasible, writes Thalia Griffiths in Yaoundé