Search results

New Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) facility Green Africa Power (AE259/17) is looking to recruit an experienced fund manager with previous involvement with renewable energy to manage its £95m ($150m) investment fund. The tender has been registered on the European Union public procurement website – ted.europa.eu/ – with the reference 2013-279690. The contract will be valid for an initial period of three or five years, expected to commence in early 2014, with potential for two one-year extensions.

UK gold miner Hummingbird Resources has reported positive results from a preliminary version of a prefeasibility study carried out by Knight Piésold into the possibility of developing a hydroelectric power plant to supply its Dugbe gold mine project (AE 298/12). The study looked at four different configurations for the power plant, ranging between 15MW and 30MW, using intake from the Dugbe and Botou rivers and Geebo creek. Although the mine was originally expected to have a total demand of 30MW, this has been revised down to 16MW, allowing potential for supplying the grid should one of the larger power plants be selected.

Toshiba Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ethiopian Electric Power on a geothermal power partnership envisaging collaboration in power generation projects and personnel development. Toshiba said it had committed to develop and manufacture major equipment, create operation and management guidelines, co-operate in personnel development, and start a waste heat utilisation business. Toshiba says it commands the world’s largest market share for geothermal equipment, with 24% of total installed capacity. Ethiopia’s geothermal potential is estimated at 6,000MW, but has yet to be explored and developed, though several projects are in their early stages.

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has approved a $21.7m facility to finance development of the Ngozi geothermal steam field in south-west Tanzania, eventually adding up to 823GWh/yr to the grid. The $5m loan and $16.73m grant come from the CIF’s Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme. Tanzania has around 15 geothermal sites with an untapped estimated potential of 650MW, and Ngozi is planned as a showcase for the technology. Exploratory test drilling will be conducted and steam-gathering infrastructure installed at the Ngozi site.

The Vienna-based Organisation for International Economic Relations and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) are providing an $800,000 grant to support a Solar Light for All initiative to supply off-grid, rural communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Solar Light for All is an initiative set up by the Austria-based Energy Globe Foundation, a non-profit organisation founded by Wolfgang Neumann.

The Netherlands’ NOTS Solar Lamps and the Rwandan government on 4 July announced an agreement for NOTS to build a $70m solar home system (SHS) manufacturing facility in the country. Rwanda’s cabinet approved the agreement in June. The plant will manufacture NOTS’ Multimax system, which includes three lamps and phone and radio chargers and is paid for in 100 weekly instalments of $0.60.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) board has approved funding for the 33MW Segou Solar photovoltaic (PV) project, Mali’s first utility-scale solar PV power plant (AE 305/8). The project will be funded by the Program for Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries (Srep), part of the multi-donor Climate Investment Funds. In addition to the $25m Srep tranche, the AfDB and International Finance Corporation are each putting in $8.4m of senior debt.

A cabinet meeting on 24 May approved a contract signed with Morocco’s Nova Power for a 25MW solar scheme in the northern city of Korhogo. The contract was signed in Marrakech in November during the COP22 climate change talks. The CFA23.6bn ($40m) plant will be built by Nova Power subsidiary Korhogo Solaire, and is expected to be operational in 2018, government spokesman Bruno Koné told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

The Volta River Authority is seeking bids for the engineering and design, supply, installation and commissioning of the Takoradi 4 project, a 186MW gas turbine combined cycle power plant at the Takoradi thermal power station site. The bidding document specifies a 30-month completion period. A mandatory site visit and pre-bid meeting is scheduled for 7 July, and bids are due by 25 July. Eligible bidders should offer funding support from the export credit agencies of the countries in which they plan to source equipment and services.

The administration is moving to strengthen the institutional focus on Morocco’s wind-focused renewables drive, with new legislation going through the works to encourage alternative energy, more private and state-funded projects under way, and a significant appointment to head the Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), which King Mohammed VI agreed should become the state agency driving renewables policy following a national conference on energy strategy earlier this year.

Mauritius-based Tembo Power has signed a joint development agreement with South African private equity fund manager Metier for the 14.7MW Kaptis small hydropower project in western Kenya. The agreement, which will see Metier take a 40% equity stake alongside Tembo Power (40%) and South Africa’s WK Construction (20%), paves the way for the next stage of the development of the run-of-river project, Tembo said on 18 March. With equity fully secured, Tembo said development finance institutions were now being appointed for senior debt, with the aim of achieving financial close and starting construction later this year.

Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) released a statement on 22 October revealing that it had approved loan facilities of R9.6bn ($1.1bn) for REIPPP first-round preferred bidders.

With its energy loan book already at record levels, the African Development Bank has granted $68m for the Inga Site Development and Electricity Access Support Project. This aims to bring the 4,800MW Inga 3 project to bankability with professional services, capacity building to allow for coherent decisions about developers, and creation of a good environment for public/private partnerships. The bank has identified shortfalls in project preparation as a key challenge to completing privately financed infrastructure schemes, even in states less fragile than Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco) has cancelled and then reissued three recently announced tenders for large-scale solar, wind and coal as Tanzania continues to bewilder investors. The tenders are part of government efforts to revive the power sector in time for elections in 2020 following a period of stagnation under the administration of President John Magufuli. Bids are now due by 7 December.Tanesco said the tenders had been cancelled due to “unavoidable circumstances”.

Sonelgaz’s president tells African Energy that ‘our differences with Dii have been resolved’ as Algeria reassesses its attitude to European mega-schemes, writes Selwa Calderbank in Brussels