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The World Bank Group has released information on the Comoros Solar Energy Access Project (CSEAP), whose four components include 9MW of solar PV and 19MWh of battery storage. It replaces an earlier project cancelled last year by the WBG.

Swedish lithium-ion battery manufacturer Polarium has started production at a 4GWh/yr battery assembly facility in Cape Town, South Africa. The plant was set up by America Tower Corporation Africa (ATC Africa), which signed a bulk purchase agreement with Polarium in 2021, having established a strategic partnership in 2017.

Xlinks has secured an undisclosed investment in its Morocco-UK power project from UK-based energy supplier Octopus Energy Group as it pushes ahead with the ambitious scheme. Speaking to African Energy, Xlinks said it has also secured development finance commitments and is in talks to raise funding to cover the full cost of the project.

Construction work has begun on two solar PV plants with a combined capacity of 30MW being built for cement manufacturer PPC Zimbabwe. 

South Africa’s new National Infrastructure Plan raises many welcome issues around planning, accountability and regulatory capacity – and talks a big game on new nuclear and renewable power. Whether implementation will match ambition remains to be seen, writes Dan Marks.

Nairobi-based Camco Clean Energy’s new specialised finance company Spark Energy Services is looking to fund solar PV and wind plants, plus energy efficiency initiatives for commercial and industrial (C&I) developers. Spark’s ‘impact-led’ approach intends to enable local developers in sub-Saharan markets to build scale and their balance sheets, in turn creating sustainable C&I businesses

Political and security conditions may be acutely difficult in the G5 Sahel countries, but a new era beckons for solar projects in the region, symbolised by AfDB approval of a plan to develop 500MW of PV capacity. Sector insiders believe that short-term problems such as rising risk premiums may be offset by the positive medium-to-long-term prospects for the rollout of solar PV across the Sahel, writes Marc Howard

Far-reaching amendments aimed as enabling a competitive market for electricity preceded another infrastructure-heavy State of the Nation address from President Cyril Ramaphosa. The devil will be in the detail as the industry pores over South Africa’s latest draft bill and the president’s statements about upcoming generation procurement, writes Dan Marks.

The commercial use of thermolysis or pyrolysis to convert organic waste into biofuels, syngas or pure hydrogen is still experimental in Africa, although the underlying technology is relatively well-established elsewhere. Most of the 22 operating biogas power plants recorded in African Energy Live Data use other methods. Early adopters of the technology include the Ford Silverton plant in Pretoria, H2-Industries and Oak Group Holdings in Egypt, Ghana’s Kumasi Technical University and the British Nigerian Pyrogenesys-led consortium. Success for any one of them will open wide new commercial opportunities, while also helping to address pressing environmental concerns.

Rising levels of German financing for Namibia include agreement for KfW to finance construction of Namibia’s first utility-scale storage facility at Omburu

The $36m, 19MWp (15MWac) Cuamba solar PV project, which includes a 2MW (7MWh) battery energy storage system (Bess), has reached financial close according to developer Globeleq, which is in partnership with Lusophone Africa private equity investor Source Energia and state utility Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) (AE 452/11, 441/11).

Democratic Republic of Congo has aspirations to become the world leader in emerging battery technologies, but despite its mineral assets, clear political will and grandiose statements from potential donors, considerable challenges need to be addressed before the country can move beyond its traditional role as supplier of raw materials, writes François Misser with Jon Marks.

Construction is due to start in the near future on Bushveld Energy’s 3.5MW solar PV and 4MWh vanadium flow battery mini-grid, after delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic – in a project which will act as a test-case for the viability of using vanadium batteries for storage.

The Bushveld Energy solar PV and vanadium battery project fits into a wider move to develop the storage market in South Africa, which was discussed in a 9 December webinar hosted by the World Bank Group featuring representatives from Customised Energy Solutions, Mintek, CSIR Energy Research Centre, Industrial Development Corporation and the South African Energy Storage Association (SAESA).

Contracts to build solar plants in South Africa and Nigeria show how large data projects are being helped by increasingly supple regulation and favourable economics, writes Marc Howard