Sub-Saharan Africa

The oversubscribed fund was closed with the help of a commitment by Austria’s national development bank. U.S. and Swedish state-owned lenders and impact investors dominate the pool of contributors to the debt finance, which will fund small-scale installations.

Zambia-based GreenCo Power is seeking independent power producers for the construction of a solar park with a capacity of up to 40 MW in the sub-Saharan country. The pilot project will be the first in taking advantage of new rules that liberalized the Zambian energy market by enabling bilateral power purchase agreements.

The Golomoti solar plant is expected to come online in 2022. The plant will be used to provide grid stability and reduce national dependence on diesel generators and hydroelectric generation.

KTDA Power Company is seeking developers for up to ten small-sized solar parks. The facilities are expected to have a capacity of between 300 kW and 1 MW.

The former need not necessarily relate to conventional lithium-ion batteries, however, as a recent webinar staged by Solarpower Europe and EU body GET.invest discovered.

Winch Energy has announced the project, which it hopes will be a significant bridgehead towards building $100 million worth of off-grid systems within two years, alongside Franco-Japanese partner Neot Offgrid Africa.

Abe Cambridge, chief executive and founder of solar cell-level, crowdfunding-based PV leasing business The Sun Exchange has spoken to pv magazine about the company’s project pipeline and its focus on bringing affordable clean power to schools.

An overview of the state of solar across the continent by trade body the Africa Solar Industry Association has highlighted a patchy policy landscape where clean power ambitions are often not followed through.

The tender was launched by Nyahururu Water and Sanitation Company (Nyahuwasco), which operates in the Laikipia West sub-county of Laikipia County, in central Kenya.

Researchers at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center have assessed the potential of installing floating solar plants on 146 hydropower reservoirs in Africa. They concluded that, in addition to increasing installed capacity, the plants also reduce water evaporation, allowing for increased annual hydropower production.