Off-grid

Opening ceremony for the World Future Energy Summit outlines renewable energy challenges and announces winners of Zayed Future Energy Prize.

Famous musician and popstar Akon is figurehead and founder of the Akon Lighting Africa initiative, which has provided affordable solar power to more than one million Africans. Akon’s goal, with the help of his business partners Samba Bathily and Thione Niang – co-founders of Solektra International – is to bring solar energy to 600 million people in Africa. pv magazine caught up with all three at the recent COP21 UN Climate Change Summit in Paris to talk about this initiative.

The British solar energy provider completes funding round with consortium of investors, including a package that uses securitization as a means of financing solar systems in Africa – a first for the continent.

Off Grid Electric has secured US$45 million in investment to realize its aim of installing solar and battery storage in one million homes in Tanzania over the next three years.

SkyPower and Plan International plan to distribute two million home solar kits over a five-year period, with an aim to reduce reliance on kerosene.

The U.S. fuel cell electric power generation company is working with the Tanzanian government and international partners to develop major solar projects in the East African country.

The country’s low electrification rate coupled with its high mobile phone penetration makes it ideal for innovative solutions that integrate the electrification of rural areas with renewable energy generation, storage facilities and advanced billing systems, according to Enel Green Power.

The U.S. startup and provider of pay-as-you-go solar energy in Africa secures funding from Generation Investment Management for the wider development of its off-grid leapfrog model in East Africa.

A number of solar plans have been announced across the African continent, including Sterling and Wilson’s aim to install 500 MW of PV across the next three years; and a US$100 million investment for renewables deployment in Rwanda and Uganda.

The off-grid solar market now represents US$300 million annually, with more than 13 million products having been sold to date, according to a new report. The sub-Saharan market is said to be reporting the strongest growth, followed by South Asia.