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Pele Green Energy has reached financial close for a major solar PV IPP that will supply power to the Glencore Merafe Chrome Venture.

Etana Energy, the South African electricity trading platform, has secured a $100m guarantee facility to support its growth. British International Investment and GuarantCo will each provide $50m in guarantees, in an arrangement designed to support the development of more renewable energy by offering IPPs greater certainty over future revenues.

CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) has raised an initial $140m tranche of senior debt from South Africa’s Standard Bank to fund commercial and industrial (C&I) power projects fuelled by renewable energy (RE) across Africa.

Construction has started at data company Teraco’s 120MWp solar PV independent power producer (IPP) project in Free State province. Power from the plant will be wheeled across the Eskom grid to Teraco’s own sites across South Africa.

KTDA is seeking EPC contractors for its greenfield 2.8MW Taunet run-of-river project. The tender also includes lots for the supply of associated transmission works and electromechanical equipment.

Chinese IPPs and investors are backing 2.5GW of new coal and solar projects that Zimbabwean authorities claim will end load shedding by 2025 – and end the need for power imports by 2026. However, Harare has a history of announcing megaprojects that do not materialise and, even if these schemes do go ahead, questions remain over whether the grid will be able to handle the additional power, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

Prolonged drought has profoundly impacted hydroelectric power-dependent Zambia. The government is enacting reforms to mitigate the crisis, most significantly increasing tariffs in October on an emergency basis – a move which could pave the way for permanent cost-reflective tariffs. Developers are also advancing a solar PV pipeline that would see installed capacity increase tenfold by 2028. This informs an optimism from some players, such as private utility CEC, over the power sector’s longer-term prospects, writes Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Lusaka.

First Quantum Minerals is raising production at its Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia’s North Western Province, leading to higher electricity demand. With state utility Zesco unable to step in with additional power, the Canadian miner has turned to IPPs and power traders on the Southern African Power Pool.

The installation of a solar plant at Fortress’ Evaton Mall is the latest stage in a major programme of on-site, renewable C&I investment by the Gauteng-headquartered real estate group. Fortress also recently signed a 10-year wheeling agreement to use the Discovery Green renewable energy platform to buy electricity from a mix of utility-scale wind and solar sources.

A permanent economic crisis characterised by inflation and fuel shortages is driving an unplanned green revolution in Burundi as consumers flee one of Africa’s worst performing utilities for the long-term security of off-grid solar systems. But even in this unforgiving environment some utility-scale projects are advancing thanks to determined international support.

Belgium’s International Montage Maintenance (IMM) has completed construction of  a 22MW thermal power plant at Gerald Group’s Marampa iron ore mine in Sierra Leone. Owned and operated by the London-headquartered miner, the commercial and industrial (C&I) Marapma facility has now been commissioned.

Climate Fund Managers has made a further investment into Konexa to back commercial and industrial projects, including a renewable power plant for Nigerian Breweries’ sites in Lagos and Ama.

Miners are proving an additional source of demand for utility Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité (CIE), with two large gold projects recently opting for significant grid offtake instead of developing the large on-site commercial and industrial (C&I) power plants seen in other West African mining jurisdictions.

Explosives and chemicals company AECI’s 4MW commercial and industrial (C&I) solar PV plant in Johannesburg has started operations. The project is part of AECI’s four-phase programme, launched in 2021, to generate solar power across various manufacturing sites.

CrossBoundary Energy has purchased Caledonia Mining Corporation’s Blanket Mine solar PV plant in Gwanda, Zimbabwe, adding the new asset to its ever-growing renewable energy portfolio in Africa.