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Island nations Seychelles, Mauritius and Comoros are assessing initiatives to encourage more private investment in renewable energy, according to a World Bank Group (WBG) report published on 20 September.

Nigeria’s Starsight Energy and South Africa’s SolarAfrica have announced plans to merge in a deal which, if approved by regulators, will join two of Africa’s largest commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable power developers into a pan-continental player with a portfolio of over 220MW of operated and signed generation capacity.

Mini-grid developer ZIZ Energie hopes to have its second ‘metro-grid’ online by December, having commissioned the first of five 1.7MW hybrid mini-grids in June. But success has not come easy for the development finance institution (DFI)-backed Chadian developer, amid political turmoil and supply constraints that continue to delay developments.

The Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (Bitri) is partnering with Canada’s Process Research Ortech (Pro) to set up a $80m plant to produce 30,000 t/yr of high-grade nickel and cobalt salts to be used for electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage batteries.

South African independent power producer (IPP) Matshela Energy has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) to develop a 100MW solar PV plant and 40MWh battery storage facility.

The Anglican Diocese of Central Zimbabwe has installed a 157kWp solar PV plant and 300kWh battery storage system at St Patrick’s High School in Gweru, Midlands province. The plant is the first phase of a proposed 5MW solar PV project that will meet the school’s electricity needs, with excess electricity sold to the national grid via a net metering scheme.

Canadian mining firm Global Atomic has signed an agreement with Enernet Global to build a hybrid power plant at the Dasa uranium project in Niger. The plant will be built by Enernet under a build-own-operate model.

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) offers several potential markets using a battery: the day-ahead market where power is traded in hourly slots; intra-day which is also hourly and operates two hours in advance; and a new balancing market which is an hour ahead for 15-minute intervals.

Long-term supply agreements have, to some extent, insulated the biggest battery manufacturers from commodity price inflation. However, price increases have been so extreme that some suppliers have threatened to pay termination penalties to get out of contracts if costs can’t be renegotiated.

Power trader Africa GreenCo is requesting expressions of interest (EoI) to install a 10MW/40MWh battery system to address intermittency in its initial portfolio of projects – including a 25MW solar PV plant the company procured in September 2021 – and to facilitate load-shifting, as well as potentially trading on the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).

The global supply chain for lithium batteries is facing unprecedented challenges in the face of huge demand from electric vehicles and big spending from purchasers in wealthier markets. Compounded by supply bottlenecks, African projects face months and possibly years more of delay and price hikes, although the capacity of battery storage power projects should eventually start to climb from their very low level now.

Vivo Energy has completed the Nampala mine solar and battery plant project in Mali for Robex Resources and has signed an agreement for work at the Kiniéro goal mine in Guinea, operated by Sycamore Mining, which Robex is taking over.

Construction starts have been announced by Oslo-based developer Scatec after the three Kenhardt projects in the Northern Cape reached financial close. “The project will be the largest investment in Scatec’s history,” the company said – and South Africa’s (and one of the world’s) largest solar and battery facilities.

Progress in Kenya's energy sector has been mixed under President Uhuru Kenyatta. His successor will inherit an electricity supply industry (ESI) lacking strong unifying leadership at troubled utility Kenya Power – which is part-way through a turnaround – and at the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), as well as strained relations with many private investors. Other items in the next government’s in-tray will be the long-delayed auctions for renewable energy (RE) projects, as well as power market deregulation and implementation of the net-metering policy.

South32’s Hillside Aluminium and renewables provider Solana Energy have partnered to develop solar PV projects to add 2-2.5MW of electricity to the grid in Richards Bay.