Cote d'Ivoire

PV initiatives should be designed to last, as several well-meaning off-grid solar projects for the developing world have floundered over the years.

The opportunities available from the aggregation and interpretation of mass data are huge and could help attract investors and ensure more efficient electricity networks as the world races to try and achieve the UN goal of access to reliable energy for all this decade.

Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité (CIE), a utility in the Ivory Coast, is set to inaugurate its first solar plant – a €40 million ($42.6 million), 37.5 MW installation, backed by a 10 MW storage system by Saft.

The tender was launched by local utility Cote d’Ivoire Energies. The 20 MW will be located on a water reservoir at the Kossou dam, in the center of Ivory Coast.

With pressure mounting on the world’s governments to turn their back on the fossil fuel, China and peers in South East Asia, Europe and South Asia could help deliver a coal-free future at the COP26 climate summit planned in Glasgow in November.

The Africa Solar Industry Association has recorded almost 2 GW of large scale project announcements since the start of last month with 18 countries planning new clean power infrastructure and including energy storage in the plants.

The government of Côte d’Ivoire aims to facilitate the development of 60 MW of solar at two sites via a new tender. The projects will be built under the World Bank’s Scaling Solar program.

The private-sector arm of the World Bank, which claims to leverage $3 of its own capital and $8 from third parties for every dollar invested in its blended finance funds, has attempted to quantify what devoting Covid recovery funds to green investment would mean for emerging economies.

Covid-19 rescue measures such as delaying electricity bill payments pile added pressure onto energy companies already hit by pandemic-related falls in demand in a continent which a new study suggests is too dependent on donor aid for the development of renewables.

With a previous 50-50 split between equity and debt investment funding for the off-grid market lurching to 84% borrowing, and commentators stating most of this year’s backing was agreed before the onset of Covid-19, fears are mounting about the prospects for the sector.