Kenya

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.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) is demonstrating how a solar-powered refrigeration unit and dryer could be self-sustaining and improve food security in Kenya.

Phaesun and Solar Cooling Engineering have developed a PV-powered cold room for small-scale farmers in Africa. The solution, which has been installed at a farm in Kenya, includes a 2.8 kW solar array and vapor compression heat pumps.

The European Commission says it will set up the new European Hydrogen Bank by the end of this year, with additional plans to hand out 10-year contracts in a new hydrogen auction. Linde Engineering, meanwhile, is teaming up with several other companies to test solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOEC) and ammonia cracking technology.

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.

UK scientists have discovered that second-life batteries could provide a lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) than conventional batteries in school buildings equipped with PV in East African schools. They said the cheapest system configuration uses either 7.5 kW or 10 kW of solar with 20 kWh of storage.

Chigozie Nweke-Eze is an economist, geographer and founder of Integrated Africa Power. He sat down with pv magazine to discuss green hydrogen development in Africa, from the project pipeline to the necessity of “additionality” when it comes to ensuring hydrogen doesn’t become yet another exploited African resource.

Princeton University researchers have published a study on how the transition to hydrogen-based energy systems would affect the tropospheric burdens of methane and hydrogen, while Provaris Energy said it is moving forward with its compressed H2 carrier.

The PEM fuel cell test in New York demonstrated the viability of this technology at 3 MW, the first time at the scale of a backup generator at a data center. Meanwhile, a Spanish-Indian venture will develop up to 300 MW of installed green hydrogen production capacity in the Iberian Peninsula, and a Norwegian-German partnership aims to have a demo track powered by a fuel cell system on the road in mid-2023.

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.