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France’s Total Eren and AIM-listed Chariot have signed an agreement to develop 430MW of solar and wind power to supply First Quantum Minerals (FQM)’s mines in Zambia.

Sedibelo Platinum Mines (SPM) is negotiating a 75MW renewable energy (RE) programme for its mines, which includes securing 40MW of solar and wind power from sites in Limpopo and Western Cape via a wheeling arrangement.

Norway’s Scatec ASA now has a choice of green hydrogen (GH2) projects in Egypt. Just months after signing pioneering agreement with fertilizer producer Fertiglobe, Scatec has signed up for a multi-gigawatt export-driven scheme in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, alongside The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) and New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). Abu Qir Fertilizers and Chemical Industries – now run by former Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) chairman Abed Ezz El Regal – is also studying a GH2 and ammonia project.

Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines has made a strategic investment in Johannesburg Stock Exchange- and A2X-listed Renergen, in a deal that gives the Canadian firm an option to negotiate power supply from Renergen’s planned gas power plant in South Africa.

Generation companies will be able to start supplying electricity directly to large customers through the national network, under regulation guidelines which the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has drafted and is due to publish in the near future.

Investec Property has announced plans for a 5.25MW rooftop solar PV project in Corbunia Mall, Durban, which it has dubbed the continent’s largest rooftop solar project.

State-owned Development Bank of Namibia has signed an agreement to fund construction of the Rosh Pinah Solar Park that will supply 5.4MW for zinc and lead miner Rosh Pinah Zinc Corporation in south-western Namibia.

Nairobi-based Camco Clean Energy’s new specialised finance company Spark Energy Services is looking to fund solar PV and wind plants, plus energy efficiency initiatives for commercial and industrial (C&I) developers. Spark’s ‘impact-led’ approach intends to enable local developers in sub-Saharan markets to build scale and their balance sheets, in turn creating sustainable C&I businesses

Announcements of big funding commitments and project completions in the last three months point to the commercial and industrial market continuing to grow at a rapid pace, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa’s larger economies.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a commitment of up to $165m for the Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework (Leaf) programme, which promotes solar home systems, green mini-grids and solar PV systems for commercial and industrial offtakers.

Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (EgyptERA) is growing into the role envisaged for the power sector regulator in the landmark 2015 Electricity Law. The electricity industry regulator has been busy with the issuing and renewal of generation and distribution licences to private businesses, which are opening significant niches in Egypt’s huge energy market – chipping away at the huge role still played by state-owned enterprises gathered under the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) umbrella. EgyptERA has recently awarded a licence to private sector renewables developer Karm Solar to run a mini-grid supplying resorts and hotels in the Red Sea resort of Marsa Alam. It has also renewed licences for Emac Utilities and Services’ diesel-fired scheme at Port Ghalib and for industrial park operator Al-Tajamouat Investment Egypt – Taqa Power’s Global Power Company subsidiary, which has industrial and tourism-related clients, and real estate developer Amer Group.

Energy minister Neïla Gongi’s approval of ten small-scale auto-consumption solar PV projects with connections to the medium-voltage grid is another demonstration that technocrats are determined to press ahead with renewable power development, despite the considerable political obstacles caused by President Kaïs Saïed’s constitutional coup and obstructive labour unions at state utility Steg, who have blocked projects including Eni’s AFD-financed Tataouine PV plant.

Kibo Energy has entered into a ten-year take-or-pay conditional power purchase agreement (PPA) with an unnamed industrial business park developer in Gauteng province. Dublin-registered Kibo announced on 14 February that the PPA was for a 2.7MW plastic-to-syngas plant.

Total Eren and Chariot’s contract to build a 40MW solar unit for South Africa’s Tharisa shows resources companies responding to shareholder pressure to go green, write Camilla Nytun and John Hamilton.

On 1 February Bamburi Cement, a subsidiary of Switzerland’s Holcim, said it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Momnai Energy for the development of two solar PV plants that will meet up to 40% of its energy needs.