Sub-Saharan Africa

The South African authorities awarded project agreements to two wind-solar-storage hybrid projects that were selected in a 2 GW tech-neutral tender held under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) in 2021.

Load shedding has been an ongoing challenge to South Africans since 2007. The country currently experiences regular, planned power outages from the national grid, forcing the country’s citizens to look for alternative sources of energy and power. While many solar energy solutions providers in the region focus on commercial and industrial installations, Huawei partner Metrowatt concentrates on the residential sector.

In its latestt monthly column for pv magazine, the International Renewable Energy Agency explains that, in order to realize Africa’s vast potential, we must ensure there is adequate investment and infrastructure development to support renewable energy. In the coming years, this means urgently overcoming the structural barriers across three priorities: infrastructure, policy, and institutional capabilities.

Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) was established to solve electricity challenges in rural parts of the country. As the organization that manages electric power in remote areas, the REA is committed to solving the problem of power access for its constituents. The REA is responsible for the main business scope of Nigeria, covering new power generation, microgrids, and distribution network construction. Abba Aliyu, head of project management for the REA’s Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), says that much has been achieved but there are still energy challenges that remain to be solved.

A team of researchers from Norway analyzed a case study of a cascade hydropower system hybridized with both floating and ground mounted PV under sub-Saharan African market conditions. It found that hybrid systems can reduce seasonal variability in renewable energy generation and increase annual producer profits under both PPA and spot market schemes.

Gambia’s Sustainable Energy Services Company is launching a tender to install 1,100 PV systems, ranging from 2 kW to 240 kW in size, on 1,000 schools and 99 health facilities.

Acwa Power and Eni have signed a hydrogen development deal, while AFC Energy has signed an agreement with Tamgo to sell hydrogen generators.

IEA-PVPS has published a new handbook that provides support for Technological Innovation System (TIS) analysis for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).

As the global North ponders e-mobility dilemmas such as how to source sufficient materials to meet electric car demand, fresh evidence has emerged of how solar can decarbonize transport and farming in Africa.

Amea Power has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 25 MW solar-plus-storage project in Djibouti. It will be the country’s first independent power producer (IPP) project and is now in development under a build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) framework.