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French developer GreenYellow has agreed to sell its stakes in solar PV and hybrid power plants in Madagascar and Burkina Faso to Antananarivo-based conglomerate Axian Group.

State utility Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has given African Energy an update on the progress of procurement and project milestones for the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (Kosap).  Under the first phase of the World Bank Group-funded project KPLC will implement 89 mini-grids in eight counties.

C&I specialist CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) is to finance and build a hybrid solar, battery energy storage and thermal plant for FG Gold’s Baomahun project in Sierra Leone. Situated in the Valunia and Kunike Barina chiefdoms of the Bo and Tonkolili districts, Baomahun will be the country’s first large-scale gold mine.

State utility Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd (UEGCL) has synchronised the sixth and final unit of the Karuma hydroelectric power plant to the grid.

Work has begun on the construction of a solar PV plant that will supply power to Glencore’s Rhovan vanadium mine and processing facility in South Africa’s Northern West province.

Local conglomerate PFO Africa has signed a PPA for Côte d’Ivoire’s largest-ever solar development, near the northern city of Ferkessédougou.

The World Bank Group has approved a $202m finance facility to help address grid constraints and enable regional interconnections – opening the way for a doubling of hydropower imports from Ethiopia – under the second phase of its ten-year green energy programme for Kenya.

The British government’s indefinite postponement of the UK Africa Investment Summit from April suggests the Sunak administration’s domestic political calculations are now trumping strategic thinking on international relationships.  

Australian junior Globe says it is advancing its project to site a niobium refinery in the Malawian capital and has outlined an ambitious plan to power mining and refining operations with renewable energy.

Commercial operations for the $127m Mozambique-Malawi (Moma) transmission interconnection project has been delayed, a source with knowledge of the project told African Energy. The delay to the Moma link into the Southern Africa Power Pool comes after a previous hold-up from demining complications, while other milestones remain to be met for the long-awaited regional interconnection scheme.

The United Kingdom is guaranteeing an African Development Bank loan whose funds will be used to further improve Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco)’s network and increase the deployment of renewable energy.

KenGen has requested consultants to provide project management and supervisory services for the 42.5MWac Seven Forks solar PV development.

The ten largest renewable energy additions to African grids in 2024 fall into four distinct groups: Ethiopian hydro, other sub-Saharan African hydro, and wind and solar projects in North Africa and South Africa. African Energy has assessed the projects and whether or not they will be built in time.

Solarcentury Africa plans to sell output domestically from its second merchant plant in Namibia, but the 60MWp SolNam solar PV project also supports SCA’s goal of becoming a leading trader in the Southern African Power Pool (Sapp) market.

The strongmen in charge of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger plan to quit the regional Ecowas bloc, as Russia further enhances its military/business relationship with the Sahel troika and Central African Republic. While Niger believes its oil production could increase fivefold as its export pipeline to Benin starts up, and the Sahel states made significant progress in developing solar generation capacity in 2023, shifting political sands mean the largely western-funded PV boom is unlikely to be repeated, and the focus of China and others on resources plays leaves a big gap in international support for other sectors, writes Marc Howard.