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Solargen has commissioned a solar and battery energy storage system, bringing electricity to Uganda’s Bussi Island on Lake Victoria for the first time.

Sasol South Africa and Air Liquide have signed a third power purchase agreement (PPA) with Enel Green Power RSA for wind power supply to their site in Mpumalanga province.

Johannesburg-based data company Teraco plans to build a solar PV plant in Free State province, after being allocated grid capacity by state utility Eskom. Electricity generated from the plant will be wheeled across Eskom and municipal power networks to Teraco’s operations throughout South Africa.

One of the continent’s biggest hybrid power projects, awarded under South Africa’s much-delayed risk mitigation IPP procurement programme, has reached financial close.

7YRDS Energy Zambia is seeking a partnership with the Lusaka-based Industrial Development Corporation to build two solar PV projects in Kafue and Sesheke districts with combined 100MW capacity.

President Macky Sall’s decision to postpone the 25 February presidential election until 15 December exacerbated an already poisonous atmosphere in Senegal. His 19 February decision to reverse that decision should lead to an election being held very soon, but political tensions will persist. African Energy’s Risk Management Report focuses on political risk indicators in a country that has long been favoured by donors and investors, and whose natural resources industries are booming as offshore oil and natural gas exports beckon. With attention firmly directed towards gas-to-power development, most other aspects of electricity industry reform, such as the unbundling of utility Senelec and introduction of wheeling have been left on hold – and further delays are likely.

Publication of the 500th issue provides an opportunity to look back at a few triumphs and many missed opportunities in the industries African Energy has covered since it was launched in 1998. Industry and financial trends have evolved, and sometimes returned to haunt stakeholders years after they were thought to be history. One constant has been the huge increase in the continent’s population, which means the UN target of universal clean energy access is constantly pushed into the distance.

Scatec’s decision to scrap its largest solar scheme, while renegotiating two smaller projects, provides a glimmer of hope to legions of other developers with stalled projects in Tunisia. African Energy’s analysis points to a narrow commercial window through which more projects might advance, but more fundamental change is needed before several gigawatts of wind and solar in other stranded schemes can succeed.

Malawian generator Egenco is seeking a contractor to install 4.5MW of additional turbine capacity and carry out all associated works at run-of-river plant on the Shire River.

German developer ABO Wind remains optimistic that it can develop two Tunisian projects it secured in 2019 but is having to switch one from wind to solar and is also battling with the commercial framework.

KenGen is seeking contractors to supply runners for the Seven Forks hydroelectric power (HEP) plant. The five HEP plant cascade provides over a fifth of the country’s electricity and is the site of a major solar PV programme.

French developer GreenYellow has agreed to sell its stakes in solar PV and hybrid power plants in Madagascar and Burkina Faso to Antananarivo-based conglomerate Axian Group.

State utility Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has given African Energy an update on the progress of procurement and project milestones for the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (Kosap).  Under the first phase of the World Bank Group-funded project KPLC will implement 89 mini-grids in eight counties.

C&I specialist CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) is to finance and build a hybrid solar, battery energy storage and thermal plant for FG Gold’s Baomahun project in Sierra Leone. Situated in the Valunia and Kunike Barina chiefdoms of the Bo and Tonkolili districts, Baomahun will be the country’s first large-scale gold mine.

State utility Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd (UEGCL) has synchronised the sixth and final unit of the Karuma hydroelectric power plant to the grid.