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The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (OMVS) is pressing ahead with the 300MW Koukoutamba hydro scheme on the Bafing River, which will cost an estimated $800m to develop. Koukoutamba is the first of three dams planned for the river, to be followed by the 160MW Bouréyah and 140MW Falayah schemes.It will be the biggest dam developed by the OMVS, which also developed the 200MW Manantali dam in Mali, the Diama dam which supplies water to Nouakchott and Dakar, and the 60MW Felou dam inaugurated in 2013.

The third and final turbine of the 275MW Soubré hydro development is due to start up in October, bringing the country’s installed capacity to 2,269MW. A commissioning ceremony was held in June for the plant at Naoua Falls, on the Sassandra River in the south-western Nawa region. State utility CI-Energies will own and operate the plant, which was built by Sinohydro with financing from the Export-Import Bank of China. The first two turbines have capacity of 90MW, while the third is 95MW.

A group of investors and lenders is creating a $400m fund to invest more flexibly in power plants in Africa. Speaking at the Africa Energy Forum in Lisbon on 13 June, Lion’s Head Global Partners co-chief executive Clemens Calice said the equity portion of the first close of about $120m for the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) on-grid fund was completed and that it was now in the process of bringing in loan finance.

InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), announced on 20 July that it had signed an agreement with Joule Africa to invest $6m in the 143MW Bumbuna II hydropower project. The funding is part of a package designed to push the project to financial close. InfraCo said construction was expected to begin next year.Joule Africa has been developing Bumbuna II since 2011.

Tideland Signal has supplied a solar-powered rotating beacon kit to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority to automate the historic lighthouse at Jamestown, Accra.

Investment advisory GreenMax Capital Advisors and merchant bank Broad Street Capital Group are pioneering a new approach to financing portfolios of off-grid projects called the GreenStreet Africa Energy Infrastructure Financing Programme. The initiative aims to allow public institutions access to low-interest financing while encouraging African governments to take on some of the risks in the sector.

US strategic consultancy Détente Group has signed agreements with the Ethiopian government to manage development of the country’s wind energy potential with support from President Barack Obama’s Power Africa Initiative. Détente managing partner Brien Morgan told African Energy that, based on the support received from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im Bank), the Department of Commerce’s Export Assistance Center, and a 25 September meeting between Obama and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the government of Ethiopia has pledged to source the entire programme from the US renewable energy industry.

The Agence Nigérienne de Promotion de l’Electrification en Milieu Rural (ANPER) is seeking expressions of interest from consultants for a project to install off-grid solar power systems as part of a national rural electrification programme financed from a $30m loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

Having reported that construction of its first solar unit at Ouarzazate, Noor I, developed by a group headed by Riyadh-based Acwa Power, has been brought in 30% under budget, Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) is looking at a range of other projects and investments, including a major industrial development investment with France’s Alcen group.As well as expecting to bring the Ouarzazate complex’s capacity to a minimum 500MW with Noor IV, a 50MW solar photovoltaic (PV) unit, Masen is planning a further major contribution to the Moroccan solar energy target of installing a minimum 2GW by 2020.

Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) expects to bring its 300MW project in Kenya on line during 2015, constituting a large chunk of the 510MW of wind energy that the government plans to commission over the next 40 months. “Commissioning will probably be 2015, which will be 50MW, and then will be injected in tranches of 10MW, with the turbines erected at one per day,” LTWP founder and owner Chris Staubo told African Energy. The company is meeting lenders in London to go through the remaining conditions precedent, of which there are about 600. “The lenders and debt are in place, we have our term sheet. What remains now is to have a meeting in London with all the lenders to go through the various conditions precedent,” said Staubo, adding: “We foresee financial close in December this year.”

Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy developer Masdar is to build seven solar PV projects totalling 12MW under a contract signed on 21 January with the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines. The projects in the towns of Boutilimit, Aleg, Aioune, Akjoujt, Atar, Al Shami and Boulenour will, on average, meet 30% of each town’s electricity demand when completed by Q1 2016, according to a press statement. The plants, which will reduce reliance on diesel, are sized to provide additional generation capacity as demand rises following upgrades to the local grids.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur (BMCE) and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) have signed a financing package for the 120MW Khalladi wind farm near Tangier – the first project to be supported by the EBRD’s new $250m fund for renewable generation in the southern and eastern Mediterranean. The EBRD and BMCE are providing E126m ($143m) to US-based developer UPC Renewables for the wind farm’s construction, operation and maintenance. The developer group comprises Saudi-based Acwa Power Global Services, UPC and investment fund Arif, managed by Infra Invest.

The enormous roster of energy sector investment projects announced at the Egypt Economic Development Conference at Sharm El-Sheikh in mid-March includes a number of firm projects to be funded by the government, and a larger number of independent power projects (IPPs) in gas, coal and renewables, some of which represent firm commitments and others which are much less likely to proceed. The overwhelming question is how the promised developments will be paid for alongside even more ambitious plans for the construction of a new $45bn capital city east of Cairo.

With all the talk about leapfrogging the grid, it is surprising how little the possible implications have filtered through to the debate about tariffs. The Africa Investment Exchange: Power and Renewables conference in London on 15-16 November saw a lively discussion about potential grid ‘disruptors’, in particular low-cost, small-scale renewable power sold directly to consumers. The technology has huge potential to provide clean power to households and industry at a fraction of the cost of the grid.

Eren Renewable Energy and its partner African Energy Management Platform on 6 March announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement with Iamgold Essakane gold mine to complement its existing diesel power plant with a 15MWp solar farm. The mine is 330km from Ouagadougou in northern Burkina and is not connected to the grid. It is the largest privately held business in the country and produced 400,000 ounces of gold in 2015. The 15MWp solar project, expected to be commissioned by year-end at a cost of $20m, will help decrease the mine’s fuel consumption by approximately 6m litres/yr.