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With the proliferation of solar and wind generation in recent years, and the shift towards distributed power generation, interest in hydroelectric power as a growth market has been marginal. However, there are signs that technology developers are responding to growing demands for generation technology which is flexible and capable of serving a mass market. One major gap in the value chain, as relevant to developed as emerging economies, is identifying sites for small-scale hydroelectric generation on a scale which allows for the large-scale production of turbines.

German solar photovoltaic (PV) mounting system manufacturer Renusol has signed an agreement to supply its equipment to South African wholesaler Lumax Energy. “The solar market in South Africa is continuously growing,” said Lumax business development manager Frans-Willem Vermaak. “On top of the estimated 100MW of rooftop and agricultural photovoltaic output that has already been installed in the country, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research predicts a significant rise in new installations in the future – 500MW per year is possible – if the government provides even greater support for solar power generation, for example by enhancing regulation, introducing tax incentives or a feed-in tariff in all provinces.

France’s Ingerop is overseeing rehabilitation work at the Selingue and Sotuba hydropower stations, which should be fully operational by 2019. The 46.24MW Selingue hydropower station was built in 1981 at a site 130km south of Bamako on the Sarankani River, a tributary of the Niger River. Ingerop is supervising the reassembly of one of four Voith 11.56MW Kaplan turbines, which was previously rehabilitated by another engineering firm but Ingerop detected problems that needed further checks.

Trouble at Lake Kariba goes well beyond record low levels and evidence of continued overuse of water for electricity generation. There have been warnings about the risk of catastrophic dam collapse as the plunge pool eats under the foundations of the dam and a €217.7m ($246m) project to reshape the plunge pool and refurbish the spillway expected to last for 60 months is being prepared. The project will be funded by the African Development Bank, EuropeAid, the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, the World Bank and the Zambezi River Authority.

US project developer Zoetic Global has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana for 100MW of hydrokinetic generation capacity at the Akosombo dam on Lake Volta. The company will use a new technology called an in-stream auger turbine (IAT). The project will be implemented in stages at a total cost of $225m.

Emerging Power (Gambia) has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with state utility National Water and Electricity Company for a 10MW solar power project. Emerging Power (Gambia) is a special purpose vehicle owned by Dubai based Z-One Holdings and French solar developer Tryba Energy. Construction is expected to begin in May, Tryba said. Z-One is a holding company with stakes in Disctech, Energy Tech Mena, Solarpraxis, Ecoprogetti, CPS Mena, CSun-MEA, juwi MEA and ZT Energy and projects in Egypt.

Finland’s Nocart has signed contracts worth €12.9m ($14.6m) to supply two off-grid power plants in Malawi and one in Nigeria. In Malawi, the company will provide a 2MW solar-diesel hybrid plant with 1MWh energy storage and a 4MW solar-diesel hybrid with 2MWh storage. The Nigerian plant will be a 1MW hybrid using solar power and sawdust. Nocart uses a software-controlled power management unit that manages generation from multiple sources and technologies to provide a stable power supply.

The World Bank is seeking expressions of interest by 7 February from banks interested in providing one or more long-term standby letters of credit to solar power projects approved as part of the Scaling Solar initiative. The letters of credit will be supported by a payment guarantee from the World Bank’s International Development Association. Scaling Solar brings together the suite of World Bank services into a single programme designed to speed up the adoption of solar power technology in sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Bank board on 11 January approved financing of $27m for a project to increase access to electricity and encourage the use of renewable power technologies. The financing comprises a $25m grant from the Strategic Climate Fund’s Scaling Up Renewable Energy Programme and a $2m loan from the International Development Agency. The project will see $22m spent on constructing a mini-grid in Lofa County, one of the areas worst hit by the Ebola crisis and which is located more than 200km from the national grid. This is intended to provide affordable, year-round electricity supply to around 50,000 people.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall has called a constitutional referendum to reduce his mandate from seven to five years. This will bring elections forward to 2017; Sall has not yet said whether he will run again. Meanwhile his Alliance pour la République faces economic challenges including chronic lack of electricity, but the energy picture is looking brighter. Kosmos Energy has just made a big new gas find with the Guembeul well, raising its reserves estimate for the Greater Tortue complex offshore Senegal and Mauritania to 17tcf from 14tcf. This follows Cairn Energy’s oil discoveries of 2014 offshore Senegal, now under appraisal.

Rwanda’s style of governance was a positive factor in developing Gigawatt Global’s solar PV project. Developer Chaim Motzen told the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa’s annual conference in November that, “from the time we started negotiations [February 2013] to full production there were three ministers of infrastructure, two [ministers of state for] energy, three Rwanda Development Board heads and three heads of the utility”. Whereas in most countries such frequent churn in key institutions would be seen as a sign of instability, he claimed that in Rwanda it pointed to President Paul Kagame’s rigorous demands for maximum performance.

The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has confirmed to African Energy that it is in the process of awarding licences for geothermal development, but would not say which sites they relate to or how many licences are involved. Rumours in the industry suggest that as many as five licences could be allocated. “From what I have gathered from the relevant offices, the process of granting the licences is in progress,” ministry spokesman John Njoroge Mwaura told African Energy. The process is believed to be in the final stages.

As President Paul Kagame seeks a controversial third term, citing his record of developing Rwanda, his government can point to considerable success in installing new generation capacity. This is essential to accelerate energy access, which has risen from 6% in 2008 to 24% in 2015. The target is to reach 70% access in 2018, infrastructure minister James Musoni said during a visit to London in December. On 8 December, US-based Symbion Power announced it had signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Rwanda Energy Group (REG) to develop a 50MW methane gas plant on Lake Kivu.

Some 14 photovoltaic (PV) plants with total 268MW capacity were commissioned in 2015 in the High Plateaux and southern regions, Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables director Noureddine Yassaa told the official Algérie Presse Service in early January. Yassaa has previously noted that the falling cost of PV panels since 2008 is working in Algeria’s favour. He said 2015 “was marked by the speeding up of photovoltaic plants construction by [state utility] Sonelgaz’s renewables subsidiary [Shariket Kahraba wa Taket Moutadjadida] SKTM in the High Plateaux and the south”.

Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) to develop an eventual 400MW hybrid concentrated solar power (CSP)/photovoltaic (PV) independent power project at Midelt. EoIs are due by 1 February for the Noor Midelt project’s first phase, called NoorM I, to be sited on some 2,400ha, located 25km north-east of Midelt town.Masen says Noor Midelt will comprise one or several power plants with a hybrid technology, combining CSP and PV.