Germany’s development bank, KfW, is financing a new minigrid project in Senegal with a $138.8 million loan.

The latest edition of the Solar Africa 2023 expo held last week in Nairobi has seen the participation of 75 exhibitors and 4,000 visitors. pv magazine was there to follow the event and explore the potential of the solar markets in East and Central Africa.

Pash Global and Tswana Renewables have formed a joint venture to develop small-scale PV plants across Botswana. For the first two 400 kW projects they have already secured a power purchase agreement.

Kenya’s government plans to build 137 solar minigrids across remote locations in the East African country. The project received $150 million in funding from the World Bank.

Rgreen Invest and Echosys Invest have raised €87.5 million ($92.7 million) through the Afrigreen Debt Impact Fund. They said they will use the money to finance on-grid and off-grid solar projects for small- and medium-sized commercial and industrial customers in Africa.

Ncondezi Energy has secured land for a 300 MW solar-plus-storage project in Mozambique. It has also signed an agreement with India’s Synergy Consulting for support in securing debt financing.

Attendees at the Renpower Kenya clean energy event in Nairobi were told there will be a changeover in incentive schemes in 2022 with mature technologies no longer benefiting from fixed payments.

CrossBoundary Energy Access (CBEA) has raised $25 million from ARCH Emerging Markets Partners, Bank of America, and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund to finance the development of solar minigrids in Africa.  

A large campus in Johannesburg – Vantage Data Centers’ first in Africa – will receive a third of its energy from solar panels.

JA Solar and Clenergy sponsored a recent webinar that explored the outlook for solar deployment in a number of southern African countries.