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The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced on 29 June that South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea had signed an agreement to provide $600m to co-finance energy projects in Africa. It adds to the glut of funds targeting the African power sector, but oversupply of donor money – or undersupply of projects – is driving interest rates down and causing concern amongst financiers.

Rolls-Royce has made an undisclosed equity investment into Kowry Energy to support the development of small-scale solar PV projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Berlin-based Kowry is focused on supporting local African solar PV developers.

Power project monitoring and data service African Energy Live Data is pleased to give an update on new features that will be added to the platform over the next 12 months.

The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Rockefeller Foundation announced a new partnership on 16 June, with the aim of investing $150m from the foundation in blended finance transactions. The investments are intended to facilitate up to $2bn of private sector investment in distributed renewable energy systems by reducing the risk using grants and concessional loans.

RP Global and OOLU on 24 June announced the launch of a new commercial and industrial (C&I) joint venture solar company called Westa.Solar. The company has already completed its first project, a 500kW solar PV hybrid system for Petrichor Industries in Kano State, Nigeria.

Cairo has secured the hosting rights for the COP27 intergovernmental meeting next year, in further evidence of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s interest in using climate change as a diplomatic tool, but the short-term prospects for large renewable schemes will remain limited until the economy expands by enough to use up existing surplus generation capacity, writes John Hamilton.

Concession agreements have been signed for Democratic Republic of Congo’s Essor programme, which are expected to facilitate $100m of investment into remote grids. The approach has been mooted as a more sustainable way to promote isolated grids and more concessions could be on the way, writes Dan Marks.

Canada’s Orezone Gold Corporation has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the United States’ Genser Energy, via its Genser Energy Burkina SA subsidiary, for the development of a 39.4MW hybrid off-grid power plant at its Bomboré gold project near Mogtédo in Ganzourgou province, some 85km east of Ouagadougou. Bomboré is the largest undeveloped gold deposit in Burkina Faso.

The 10MWp Adams solar PV plant is expected online in September, construction began in January following the approval of an amended generation licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa in December.

The off-grid 0.25MWp solar PV plant with a 1MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system (Bess) developed by South Africa’s BlueNova Energy at Timbila Nature Reserve in Namibia’s Erongo region is now online. Blue Nova chief executive James Verster told African Energy the plant’s power is being used to construct a tourism site in the 25,000ha wildlife reserve.

A new off-grid power plant at Resolute Mining’s Syama gold mine in the Sikasso region of Mali is now operational, with 20MW of heavy fuel oil (HFO) capacity and a 10MW/5MWh battery energy storage system (Bess) online, the Australian mining company told African Energy.

New financing for West Africa-focused hybrid solar PV project developer Daystar Power underlines the extent that commercial and industrial (C&I) markets are gaining traction with development finance institutions (DFIs) and others. Daystar Power has completed a $38m series B funding round led by Denmark’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries and including French impact infrastructure fund Stoa, French DFI Proparco – backed by a guarantee from the European Union under the African Renewable Energy Scale-Up facility (ARE Scale-Up) – and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Kenya’s Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has invited public comments on the draft energy (mini-grid) regulations 2021 ahead of their publication later this year. EPRA has set a deadline of 9 June for suggested amendments, which will become the new legal framework for mini-grids.

Commercial and industrial (C&I) solar company Starsight Energy has reported 74% growth in revenues in 2020, underlining the apparent differing fortunes for off-grid solar companies, as solar home system (SHS) providers appear to have struggled more than C&I companies.

The World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) has issued guarantees worth up to $37.1m to African Infrastructure Investment Managers’ (AIIM) African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3. It will cover AIIM’s investment in solar home system (SHS) company Bboxx’s operations in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, and Rwanda for up to ten years.