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Work has begun on the construction of a solar PV plant that will supply power to Glencore’s Rhovan vanadium mine and processing facility in South Africa’s Northern West province.

Local conglomerate PFO Africa has signed a PPA for Côte d’Ivoire’s largest-ever solar development, near the northern city of Ferkessédougou.

Australian junior Globe says it is advancing its project to site a niobium refinery in the Malawian capital and has outlined an ambitious plan to power mining and refining operations with renewable energy.

KenGen has requested consultants to provide project management and supervisory services for the 42.5MWac Seven Forks solar PV development.

The ten largest renewable energy additions to African grids in 2024 fall into four distinct groups: Ethiopian hydro, other sub-Saharan African hydro, and wind and solar projects in North Africa and South Africa. African Energy has assessed the projects and whether or not they will be built in time.

Solarcentury Africa plans to sell output domestically from its second merchant plant in Namibia, but the 60MWp SolNam solar PV project also supports SCA’s goal of becoming a leading trader in the Southern African Power Pool (Sapp) market.

The strongmen in charge of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger plan to quit the regional Ecowas bloc, as Russia further enhances its military/business relationship with the Sahel troika and Central African Republic. While Niger believes its oil production could increase fivefold as its export pipeline to Benin starts up, and the Sahel states made significant progress in developing solar generation capacity in 2023, shifting political sands mean the largely western-funded PV boom is unlikely to be repeated, and the focus of China and others on resources plays leaves a big gap in international support for other sectors, writes Marc Howard.

Electricity trading platform Etana Energy will supply 195GWh of renewable energy to real estate investor Growthpoint’s retail, office and industrial sites around South Africa.

Comoros President Azali Assoumani has secured yet another term in office through a disputed election, undermining prospects for progress and stability in the small island state where nearly half the population live in poverty and where a shortage of electricity is holding back development, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

The Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) raised $145m in an investment round led by private equity investor Affirma Capital in early January, quickly followed by the listing of a debut $54m ‘green bond’ on the Lusaka Securities Exchange. The bond is the first part of a planned $200m issuance programme, which was launched in December to fund an expansion of the company’s solar PV generation capacity. Managing director Owen Silavwe, gave African Energy an update on the progress of the 60MW solar PV project at Itimpi, which will take CEC’s solar capacity to 96MW.

Trafigura subsidiary Puma Energy said it had snapped up a minority stake in South African renewable energy company MBHE Group.

Construction is expected to start at the planned Sherbro Island power plant this year, with the involvement of Hollywood actor Idris Elba adding a sprinkling of stardust to Sierra Leone’s first wind development.

South African state electricity utility Eskom has said a 10% curtailment exercise will unlock almost 3.5GW of transmission capacity for wind power generation in Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

South Africa-headquartered Sustainable Power Solutions, Namibian property developer Fortitude and the Oelofse family are collaborating to develop a solar PV plant at Maxwell farm to supply electricity to B2Gold’s Otjikoto mine via a wheeling deal with NamPower.

Despite a 14GW announced pipeline of new power generation projects, 2023 was marked by the lowest amount of new-build capacity being added to the continent’s grid since 2018, according to new analysis from African Energy Live Data. Hydroelectric and solar additions came out on top, while gas-to-power schemes continued to disappoint as delays and unrealised projects clog up the project pipeline.