Search results

Financing from Saudi-based International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation is part of a $600m three-year deal signed in May 2023 and will pay for imports of petroleum products needed for electricity generation.

Construction is expected to start at the planned Sherbro Island power plant this year, with the involvement of Hollywood actor Idris Elba adding a sprinkling of stardust to Sierra Leone’s first wind development.

Ore feed has resumed at the Langer Heinrich uranium plant, with commercial production expected in near term after operator ASX-listed Paladin Energy raised $150m of new debt.

South African state electricity utility Eskom has said a 10% curtailment exercise will unlock almost 3.5GW of transmission capacity for wind power generation in Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

Food and animal feed producer Unga Group is close to finishing the installation of 3MW solar PV capacity at five manufacturing across the country.

South Africa-headquartered Sustainable Power Solutions, Namibian property developer Fortitude and the Oelofse family are collaborating to develop a solar PV plant at Maxwell farm to supply electricity to B2Gold’s Otjikoto mine via a wheeling deal with NamPower.

Despite a 14GW announced pipeline of new power generation projects, 2023 was marked by the lowest amount of new-build capacity being added to the continent’s grid since 2018, according to new analysis from African Energy Live Data. Hydroelectric and solar additions came out on top, while gas-to-power schemes continued to disappoint as delays and unrealised projects clog up the project pipeline.

Yemeni-owned independent power producer Sabson plans a greenfield HFO-fired plant, as part of Somalia’s effort to increase its low on-grid capacity.

The latest version of the South African government’s Integrated Resource Plan, issued in early January and now open for public feedback, advocates the longer-term use of coal-fired power plants and reduces renewables’ role in the overall energy mix, prompting a strong reaction from industry observers, as critics claim it will set back the energy transition, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

Bureaucratic hurdles are delaying the commissioning of the completed 1.65MWp Marco Borero Nyeri solar PV plant in Kenya, highlighting the difficulties facing small local independent power producers (IPPs).

The government’s latest Integrated Resource Plan, issued in early January, provided further details of South Africa’s plans for 7.2GW of new gas-to-power capacity to replace ageing coal-fired units. LNG is central to making that happen and a contract to develop an import terminal in Richards Bay has been awarded to the Netherlands’ Vopak.

Turkey’s Aksa Energy has started installation work at the 255MW Saint Louis combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant, in the coastal city of Saint Louis, 320km north of Dakar. African Energy spoke to Aksa to get the details of the project, which was awarded directly to local developer Ndar Energies in February 2023.

Disbursement of the first tranche of Afreximbank’s $3.3bn crude-for-finance deal will help to ease Abuja’s immediate financial difficulties, as the Tinubu administration needs all the help it can get to alleviate a cost of living crisis that threatens to alienate the president’s support base and derail essential reforms.

Efforts to upgrade regional power pools are critical if the CMP is to achieve its vision of a fully interconnected African power grid, as discussed in the latest African Energy view. Among signs of progress, the launch of a southern African Regional Transmission Infrastructure Financing Fund is expected soon, the West Africa Power Pool is testing a day-ahead market and the Eastern Africa Power Pool aims for its market to go live by mid-2024.

The African School of Regulation (ASR) is expected to soon appoint a permanent director to succeed interim director Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga, who was appointed in July 2022. Officially launched in September 2023, with its headquarters at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) in Accra, ASR has in fact been running seminars and conferences with regulators across the continent for more than 12 months.