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Casablanca-based infrastructure financier Africa50 has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state power company Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) to develop three solar photovoltaic plants and a series of transmission projects. Africa50 said it planned to develop the projects under the $4.5bn ($236m) Africa Green Investment (AGI) initiative announced on 11 December at the COP28 climate change summit in Dubai.

National tea producer Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) is close to completing construction work on three hydroelectric power stations, which it plans to switch on in 2024, as the smallholders’ corporation prepares for more HEP and solar schemes to supply its huge operations.

A consortium led by TotalEnergies has signed agreements for the 75MW Mulilo solar PV and battery storage project in Northern Cape, under the much-delayed Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme, while another RMIPPP project has reached commercial close and other schemes are expected to make decisions soon.

Danish investor and developer Frontier Energy has announced a co-investment with three European development finance agencies for the 50MWp, under-construction, multi-site Planet Solar independent power producer (IPP) plant. Planet Solar will be Sierra Leone’s first large grid-connected IPP, the funders said.

State utility Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) has called for expressions of interest (EoI) from consultants to provide transaction advisory services for the World Bank Group’s Namibia Renewable Energy Scale-Up Support Project (NRESUSP).

The World Bank Group’s soft lending International Development Association (IDA) has called for expressions of interest (EoI) from consulting engineering firms to advise on the procurement of solar PV and storage as part of its Comoros solar energy access project (Paesc).

UAE-based players have used COP28 to commit – and recommit – to projects that could supply over 12GW of renewables capacity across Africa. Emiratis argue this displays a willingness to push projects forward and shoulder risk, while others have failed to deliver – and if critics complain they are also prominent in the oil lobby, Abu Dhabi can counter that the UAE has assumed a leading role in enabling Africa’s energy transition.

Nearly all of South Africa’s climate finance is being provided from local sources, while inflows from international funders remain very low, a new Presidential Climate Commission report shows. While more funds have flowed into Africa’s largest greenhouse gas emitter in recent years, these resources remain insufficient compared to the extent of the actions required to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The UAE has had to deal with some unwelcome scrutiny of its energy strategy after the COP28 climate conference opened in Dubai on 30 November. Observers had long warned that holding such an event in the world’s seventh largest oil producer was likely to lead to friction and so it has proved. African Energy’s sister publication Gulf States Newsletter (GSN) gives a view from the region, including a roundup of the big pledges made in a ‘transactional’ first week.

State-owned utility Zesco is looking for a new renewable energy contractor, having put on hold a 2.4GW solar PV development with China’s CiEG. Work on other projects is continuing, but this is a difficult period for Zambia, which has still to implement its multilateral debt deal amid a lack of foreign currency and financing, writes Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Lusaka.

At a COP28 signing ceremony, Dubai-headquartered Amea Power announced what promises to be the Horn of Africa’s largest ever wind development – in a country where private project development has proved highly problematic.

War-torn but entrepreneurial Somalia is edging back towards normality, at last securing membership of the East African Community and reporting some progress in tackling Al-Shabaab militants. The government also has longer-term ambitions to exploit ample renewable energy potential and offshore oil and gas resources, writes Dominic Dudley.

A series of increasingly high-profile and commercialised UN climate change summits has driven a global boom in climate finance, but Africa is being left behind as a result of poor infrastructure, weak governance and other issues. As discussions start at COP28 in Dubai, African Energy assesses the data and what needs to change if Africa is to hit its climate change targets.

It is going to be a challenging and busy COP for summit president Sultan Al-Jaber, but with an inaugural $420m capitalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund announced on the first day, the multi-tasking Emirati came out swinging against his critics. Al-Jaber’s role as chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has prompted allegations of a conflict of interest and abuse of COP for commercial, fossil fuel-related ends. But other agendas are afoot, and as COP has morphed into one of the world’s largest business conferences, the geopolitical horse-trading has further intensified.

Landlocked and energy-poor, eSwatini wants independent power producers to play a bigger role in building renewable energy capacity, as the kingdom strives to generate sufficient power and end years of over-dependence on imported electricity.