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Engie Africa launched a pilot project earlier this month to provide purified water, power and Wi-Fi to off-grid communities in Kigali, Rwanda.

Off-grid solar company Easy Solar announced on 29 September that it has raised $3m through its series A equity round from impact investor Acumen and the Netherlands’ FMO, and $2m of debt through crowdfunding platform Trine. Easy Solar operates in Liberia and Sierra Leone. “Sierra Leone’s low electrification rates combined with limited alternatives for clean energy make Easy Solar’s business model highly relevant,” FMO venture programme manager Marieke Roestenberg said.

Africa’s largest off-grid solar company Greenlight Planet has raised $90m of new financing as early Q3 figures show revenue has already surpassed Q1 levels despite the coronavirus pandemic. Further equity raisings are planned to fund the company’s expansion ambitions, writes Dan Marks

The World Bank Group board on 17 September approved $150m from the International Development Association (IDA) and $10m grant from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme for the $288m Energy Access and Quality Improvement Project in Rwanda. The IDA financing includes a $75m loan and $75m grant.

Sweden’s Swedfund has committed $12m to SunFunder’s Solar Energy Transformation (SET) Fund, bringing commitments to the fund to $60m. Other investors include the US International Development Finance Corporation – which invested $25m in 2018 – Calvert Impact Capital, Ceniarth, and Ikea Foundation. SunFunder said the fund’s junior layer, which is usually occupied by development finance institutions and philanthropic investors, is now fully committed, but $10m remains available to senior investors.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed a $12.5m loan for Engie subsidiary Fenix International to deploy 240,000 solar home systems in Uganda. According to Engie, the loan will result in 1.4m Ugandans gaining access to electricity.

South African national utility Eskom has released two tenders as part of the 800MWh first phase of its battery storage programme. The utility is seeking a company to design, build, commission, and operate for five years an 80MW/320MWh battery system at the Skaapvlei substation near Vredendal in the Western Cape.

A move to charge value-added tax (VAT) at 14% on off-grid solar, wind and hydro energy generation equipment and on clean cookstoves with effect from 1 July has caused an outcry from the green energy industry. Bodies including the Africa Minigrid Developers Association (AMDA), off-grid solar body GOGLA, the Clean Cooking Alliance of Kenya and the Kenya Renewable Energy Association have condemned the move. AMDA chief executive Aaron Leopold said the Treasury had ignored the advice of key industry players including the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.

The Nigerian government is caught between a rock and a hard place as it tries to square the need to reduce subsidies to the electricity sector with protecting customers and the economy from price rises when they are already hard hit by Covid-19. Distribution companies (discos) are absorbing substantial losses due to reductions in industrial demand and challenges protecting revenue through disconnections and meter inspections. However, there is some confidence that the sector continues to move in the right direction, with enthusiasm about better collaboration between stakeholders and initiatives for franchises within existing disco boundaries.

The latest figures from African Energy Live Data suggest that Q1 2020 saw the lowest generation capacity additions in Africa for at least 20 years, with no new on-grid generation from February after coronavirus halted construction and commissioning

The impact of coronavirus on construction and project completions was underlined by figures for Q1 2020 produced by African Energy Live Data and presented at a 6 July Africa Investment Exchange (AIX) webinar on Africa power negotiations. This showed that only 240MW of net installed capacity was added in Q1 2020 (as a total of 438MW was installed but several big rental contracts ended). If this performance continued across the year, there would be a historic low in the installation of new generation capacity.

The 2020 update of the Tracking SDG 7:The Energy Progress Report, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency, the United Nations Statistics Division, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation found that the global population without access to electricity has decreased from 1.2bn in 2010 to 789m in 2018. More than 1bn people have gained access to power over the period.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has published a general procurement notice for the development of solar PV plants at multiple locations with combined capacity of 500MW. Zimbabwe has been planning a major renewable power procurement for some time as the country looks to end its long-running energy crisis and reduce reliance on imported power and fuel. Solar PV plants will also help Zimbabwe manage its hydropower resources, which have been hard hit by drought.

Impact investment platform Energise Africa says that since its 2017 launch it has raised more than £14m ($17m) through crowdfunding for energy access businesses in Africa. Energise Africa is part of Lendahand Ethex Ltd, a joint venture between the United Kingdom’s Ethex Investment Club and Netherlands- based Lendahand Finance BV.