Sub-Saharan Africa

The South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is requesting proposals for the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP). The tender is intended to procure 2 GW of capacity in response to the chronic short-term electricity supply gap that is affecting the country and its mining sector. Renewables are also entitled to compete.

Plus, some 5 GW of solar could be heading to Botswana and Namibia and news of a new automotive fuel cell building in Ulm, Germany.

President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo has laid the foundation stone for a vast, 1 GW Kinshasa Solar City photovoltaic project aimed at improving the capital’s power supply.

The Nigerian Ministry of Power is accepting bids to build seven off-grid PV projects, along with other installations that will improve access to energy.

Grid scale lith-ion batteries may be multiplying Stateside, but an expected recovery in the production line segment will be put on hold until next year because of the pandemic, according to one analyst.

The International Renewable Energy Agency wants consultants to prepare a plan for grid expansion across West African countries. The ECOWAS region currently has only 16 GW of power generation capacity, with 32% of it from hydroelectric facilities and 68% thermal power.

The minister of finance and budget and the minister of energy have signed a memorandum of understanding with Argentina-based Alcaal Group relating to the feasibility studies of a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of up to 200 MW with large storage capacity on the outskirts of the country’s capital.

The ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency is seeking consultants for the West African Clean Energy Corridor program. It expects the region to deploy 7.6 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Sasol plans to power its operations in the municipalities of Secunda and Sasolburg with two 10 MW solar projects. The successful bidders with sell power to the factories under power purchase agreements.

The South African national power company is planning to deploy large scale energy storage capacity at the Skaapvlei substation. The facility will help manage the intermittent energy generated by a 100 MW Eskom wind farm.