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A €115m loan for the New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) is under appraisal at the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance a 200MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez.The loan represents 31.9% of the total cost of the plant, estimated at €360m. The government aims to increase wind energy’s share of total generation capacity to 12% by 2020, and the NREA prequalified 28 wind power projects in January.

There are some reassuringly familiar international names among the successful bidders for generation plants in Nigeria’s privatisation process, but the successful consortia also contain a number of less-known local companies whose beneficial ownership has not been revealed; some firms are linked to powerful former military leaders.

Algeria’s plans for developing more solar capacity for domestic use are advanced. Although the impact of proposed projects on total installed capacity will be slight, the targets are substantial.

UK-based miner Hummingbird Resources has signed a co-operation agreement with IFC InfraVentures and Aldwych International to develop a 20-30MW hydropower plant in south-east Liberia. The project aims to reduce operating costs for the company’s Dugbe 1 gold project as well as providing power for the surrounding region and, in particular, the town of Greenville, the Alternative Investment Market-listed company said in a stock exchange filing on 7 April.

The 150MW Zongo II dam in Kongo Central province has started supplying an initial 37MW to the grid. A formal inauguration is planned for December. The project was built by Sinohydro and financed by a $360m loan from the Export-Import Bank of China. Visiting the site on 2 September, energy and water resources minister Ingele Ifoto said the plant would significantly improve supply to Kinshasa and Kongo Central. According to a project engineer from Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel), the dam, power house and return channel are almost 100% complete.

French developer Urbasolar Group launched construction of a 30MWp solar PV plant at Pâ in the Boucle du Mouhoun region in a ceremony on 1 February. The plant is being developed as a public-private partnership between the government, Urbasolar, and local partner PPS. The plant will cover an area of 35 hectares and is expected to produce 51.7GWh/yr, supplying the towns of Pâ, Wona, Houndé, Yaramoko and Boromo. Construction is expected to take ten months.

Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique (SBEE) expects to invite prequalification applications for the design, supply and installation of a 25MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) park at Illoulofin in the commune of Pobé in southern Benin by May 2018. The contract also requires assistance with the operation and maintenance of the project for a period of three years and training of SBEE staff.

Tullow Ghana has given Technip, in consortium with Subsea7, two contracts for the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (Ten) development. The contracts have a combined value of $1.23bn, with a Technip share of about $730m. Technip’s scope of work includes the engineering, fabrication and installation of nine flexible risers, three flexible flowlines and 12 flexible spools, totalling 48km; the engineering, fabrication and installation of 33km of water injection and gas injection rigid flowlines; installation of about 63km of static and dynamic umbilicals; engineering, prefabrication, final assembly and installation of ten rigid jumpers; and delivery of a further six prefabricated rigid jumpers.


Equatorial Guinea plans an Energy Year in 2019, promoting the sector while marking 50 years of independence from Spain. The government plans a series of events, starting with the biennial summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Malabo. Mines and hydrocarbons minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima said Malabo was also aiming to host ministerial meetings of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as a ministerial meeting of the African Petroleum Producers Association along with a conference and exhibition.

India’s Vikram Solar has partnered Johannesburg-based Powertech Africa to sell its solar PV modules to utility-scale projects and households in 14 African countries. Powertech Africa – which has established a network of offices providing electricity distribution products and is a subsidiary of Allied Electronics Corporation Ltd (Altron) – will be sales agent, selling 250Wp Eldora Ultima 60 cell modules. By May, the pair hope to have sold modules amounting to capacity of 1MW.

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) General Secretariat invites expressions of interest by 2 October from consulting firms to provide technical assistance for the optimisation of the 88MW Mount Coffee hydropower plant. All four 22MW units at the refurbished plant on the Saint Paul River were synchronised with the grid in May 2017, marking the return to full operation of the run-of-river station for the first time since 1990, when it was largely destroyed during the country’s civil war.

AIM-listed Ncondezi Energy has suspended talks with Shanghai Electric Power (SEP) on its 300MW coal-to-power scheme in Tete province, saying the Chinese company had not come up with funding for the project. The companies signed a joint development agreement in January 2016 for SEP to invest up to $25.5m for a 60% stake in the project. Ncondezi said it would now talk to other potential partners that had expressed interest.

The US Trade and Development Agency signed an agreement on 24 March to provide a grant of $645,000 to the Ghana Grid Company to fund a feasibility study

The World Bank Group’s Inspection Panel (IP) has raised a number of concerns in its investigation of the Bujagali dam project. Groups led by Uganda’s National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) requested an inspection last year (AE 119/23). The project has also been investigated by the African Development Bank’s Independent Recourse Mechanism.

The government will fund a giant 5,250MW hydro project on the Abay River to be built by Salini at a cost of nearly $5bn, writes Michael Wooldridge