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South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has appointed Globeleq’s Red Sands project as the fifth preferred bidder under its battery energy storage independent power producer procurement programme (BESIPPP) first bid window.  The project will be the largest standalone battery energy storage system in Africa and ends the initial phase of the BESIPPP programme.

London-listed Energean has taken on the operatorship of the Lixus and Rissana licence areas, alongside partners Chariot and state-owned Onhym

In a significant boost to Zambia’s installed capacity, Copperbelt Energy Corporation’s Itimpi solar PV plant has come online in Garneton, Kitwe district.

A new guarantee facility provided PIDG’s GuarantCo arm could help to increase the number of creditworthy, long-term offtakers able to sign power purchase agreements.

Just over a year after Infinity Power acquired Lekela Power to create the largest renewable energy company in Africa, the Cairo-based developer is close to signing a power purchase agreement for a proposed 200MW wind plant close to Lekela’s existing 250MW West Bakr wind farm. There are also plans to expand Lekela’s Taiba N’Diaye wind plant in Senegal and to compete for projects in South Africa.

Canadian miner Lucara Diamond Corporation has concluded a feasibility study that paves the way for the construction of a utility-scale solar PV plant and battery storage energy system to supply power to its Karowe mine.

President Joseph Nyuma Boakai is committed to reform but aged 79, and with a long if intermittent history in public life, Liberia’s new leader has much to prove.

Electricity sector reform is high among new Liberian President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s much-trailed ‘100 day deliverables’, but the challenges of delivering improved services remain enormous in an industry still impacted by years of mismanagement and graft. State utility LEC has improved its performance, funding for new interconnections offers hope of more imports and there are rumours that a powership could provide short-term supply, writes Marc Howard.

Some headline elements of the now ruling Parti Africain du Sénégal, pour l’Ethique et la Fraternité (Pastef les Patriotes)’s policy were presented during the election campaign, which included the following commitments:

The issue leads with Senegal, where making the most of hydrocarbon resources and tackling perceived governance abuses are among the hot dossiers at the top of incoming President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s agenda. Policy-makers and investors need to be acutely aware that Senegal is waiting on radical change from its new Pastef government, write Waly Dione Faye and Jon Marks. African Energy also takes a closer look at Benin, where a proposal to add 300MW of solar PV would reshape the power sector if implemented. Analysis of the African Energy Live Data platform suggests a more incremental approach will be necessary given Benin’s rocky record of project implementation, alternative GTP ambitions and the sheer size of what is proposed compared to operating capacity. Power coverage includes a focus on Algeria, where the planned addition of 3GW of solar power over the next two years will be the first substantial shift in Algeria’s gas-dependent energy mix in decades – and is intended as the first step in a programme to add 15GW of solar capacity by 2035. The government’s track record, however, raises significant doubts about whether the new vision is achievable. African Energy also takes a closer look at Ghana, where the start of arrears payments by Electricity Company of Ghana has brought welcome relief for local power producers. Although Ghana’s economic recovery still hinges on the conclusion of an IMF programme and wider debt restructuring, private investors have been able to win better terms for their power projects. Upstream coverage includes analysis of Mauritania’s $1bn deal with an Egyptian consortium to develop offshore gas. African Energy’s downstream coverage and African Energy View focus on the Sudan civil war. A year after Hemedti’s RSF militia launched its campaign against the Sudan Armed Forces, there seems little incentive for either faction to back down, despite having unleashed a global-scale humanitarian crisis and destroying Khartoum. Sudan potentially faces a de facto split in a conflict that is also economically ruinous, damaging the Sudan and South Sudan oil industries, with vital work on export pipelines now impossible.

A proposal to add 300MW of solar PV in a Greater Cotonou industrial zone would reshape the small West African economy’s power sector if implemented, but analysis of the African Energy Live Data platform suggests a more incremental approach will be necessary given Benin’s rocky record of project implementation, alternative GTP ambitions and the sheer size of what is proposed compared to operating capacity.

Making the most of hydrocarbon resources and tackling perceived governance abuses are among the hot dossiers at the top of incoming President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s agenda. Policy-makers and investors need to be acutely aware that Senegal is waiting on radical change from its new Pastef government, write Waly Dione Faye and Jon Marks.

The hydrocarbons-focused Africa Energy Bank’s promoters Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers Organisation are looking to a start-up this year for an institution with an initial capital base of $5bn.

The addition of 3GW of solar power generation capacity over the next two years will be the first substantial shift in Algeria’s gas-dependent energy mix in decades – and is intended as the first step in a programme to add 15GW of solar capacity by 2035 – but coming after years of false dawns, the government’s track record raises significant doubts about whether the new vision is achievable, writes John Hamilton.

Sudan may be on the verge of a de facto split, its infrastructure is in ruins and populations are struggling to survive a global-scale humanitarian crisis, but there is little incentive for either side to back down one year after militia leader Hemedti launched his RSF’s campaign against erstwhile ally the Sudan Armed Forces regime. While attention is focused on conflicts elsewhere, a major African country is being destroyed for personal advantage in a conflict marked by significant intervention from the wider region.