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Sinohydro has given Alstom a contract worth about €58m ($77m) to provide electro-mechanical equipment and technical services for the 600MW Karuma hydropower project on the Victoria Nile. The French engineering giant said on 27 February that Alstom Hydro China would supply, install, test and commission six 100MW Francis turbine-generator sets and related equipment, and provide site services. The run-of-river project, which is to be located in the districts of Kiryadongo and Oyam, 15km downstream of the Karuma Falls in northern Uganda, is being developed by Sinohydro under an engineering, procurement and construction contract signed in June 2013.

President Paul Biya on 15 June ceremonially launched construction of the 200MW Memve’ele dam on the Ntem River.

Swiss engineering consultancy Stucky has said that the Inga I and II dams show “permanent deformations” and that it is studying the cause.State power utility Société Nationale d’Electricité du Congo (Snel) gave Stucky a contract in 2012 to investigate the causes of permanent deformations in the dams and powerhouses that had been observed since construction. The contract is funded by the World Bank, and work is scheduled to be carried out from 2013 to 2016.

The Mount Coffee hydroelectric power plant rehabilitation project is rushing to arrange compensation for around 500 people living along the two transmission lines that will take power from the plant to Monrovia. The issue needs to be resolved in time for the transmission lines to begin evacuating power when the first unit is connected to the grid, which is expected in December. Mount Coffee is expected to generate 88MW on completion, which is scheduled for August 2017.

Full notice to proceed was given on 23 January to contractors at the Mubuga solar PV project in Gitega province. The plant is Burundi’s first IPP to reach this point and will play an important role in reducing reliance on thermal power and providing power during the dry season. Mubuga has been in development by Gigawatt Global Coöperatief for five years alongside a range of international financial institutions. Commercial operation is expected by year-end.

The African Development Bank (AfDB)-managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa) has approved a $992,000 grant for a 7.8MW hydropower project on the Mutonga River in Meru County. The project is based on standard run-of-river technology, with a shareholding structure where the Mutunguru community in central Kenya will receive a fixed small share of profits. The Sefa grant to Mutunguru Hydroelectric Company Limited will help finance legal support for setting up community arrangements, financial advisory, support to lenders’ due diligence, support to environmental and social impact assessments, and institutional and management capacity building.

New Eskom interim CEO Brian Molefe has said that his short and medium term aims were to end load shedding and ensure efficiency and security of coal power supply, but that “in the medium to long term [our priority is] to increase alternative sources of energy, to systematically reduce our reliance on coal over a period of time”. His statement, taken with energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s announcement of “expanded and accelerated” independent power producer (IPP) procurement programmes, is widely viewed as signalling government recognition that Eskom will not provide new generation capacity within a timeframe or at a cost that can be justified in light of the success of the renewable energy IPP procurement (REIPPP) programme.

The Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) and Meru County government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 29 August with Australia’s Windlab and Japan’s Eurus Energy for the development of an 80MW hybrid wind, solar PV and battery power plant. The agreement was signed at the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad). Windlab has been working with Meru County for some time, signing a joint development agreement in 2016 for 166MW of renewable power in phases.

The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energy is seeking prequalification bids from developers for five solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totalling 500MW. The plants will be developed on a build-own-operate concession basis. According to the prequalification notice published on 11 May, the five projects are: Project A of about 50MWp in Tozeur governorate; Project B of about 50MWp in Sidi Bouzid; Project C of about 100MWp in Kairouan; Project D of about 100MWp in Gafsa; Project E of about 200MWp at Borj Bourguiba in Tataouine governorate.

China International Water & Electric Corporation (CWE) announced on 2 February the signing of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and Ministry of Finance for the 450MW Souapiti dam and hydropower plant on the Konkoure River. The $1.38bn contract is expected to be completed in 58 months and will involve the construction of a roller-compacted concrete dam with a maximum height of 116.5 metres and length of 1,148 metres, as well as a power plant with a design installed capacity of 450MW and average annual output of 1.9TWh.

The US Power Africa initiative’s Beyond the Grid programme on 20 June closed Round II of its Off-Grid Energy Challenge – a General Electric, US Agency for International Development and US African Development Foundation initiative, offering 18 $1.8m grants to developers of off-grid and small-scale renewables projects in each of the six Power Africa countries. Winners will be announced in mid-August. Beyond the Grid aims to facilitate investment in off-grid and small-scale power projects, and is specifically targeted at providing 20m new connections for households and businesses over a five-year period; it is partnering 27 companies that have committed to investing $1bn into off-grid and small-scale solutions.

China’s ZTE Corporation has completed the feasibility study for Zimbabwe Power Company’s (ZPC) Insukamini solar project, and is finalising an application for a concessional loan from the Export-Import Bank of China, the Herald reported. ZPC and ZTE signed a contract for the construction of the 100MW Insukamini solar project in October 2015. ZTE said at the time that it planned to set up a solar equipment manufacturing facility in Zimbabwe.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has confirmed its intention to contribute to the financing of the Djermaya solar plant. AfDB vice-president for power, energy, climate change and green growth Amadou Hott visited President Idriss Déby Itno on 5 July to discuss financing for the project, and several other areas of potential cooperation. An AfDB statement said the bank also plans to support other energy sector projects such as the electrical interconnection between Chad and Cameroon, and the rehabilitation of the Societe Nationale d’Electricité thermal plant.

A community-owned 99kW solar mini-grid is providing power to the Mashaba community in Gwanda district, an arid rural enclave in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland South region. The 99kW Mashaba power plant, the country’s first such project, was implemented by Practical Action Southern Africa and its partners SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and Zimbabwe’s Dabane Trust under Practical Action’s Sustainable Energy for Rural Communities (SE4RC) project, whose goal is to ensure universal access to modern energy services in rural areas of Malawi and Zimbabwe.

The Export Import bank of China has lent Zimbabwe $319m to finance the 300MW expansion of its Kariba hydropower station under a contract awarded to Sinohydro last year (AE 245/10). “This should go a long way in reducing power outages that characterise our power generation.