Sub-Saharan Africa

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.

Koen Peters has been the executive director of global offgrid solar association GOGLA since 2014. He has more than 20 years of international work experience, with more than 12 years in relation to energy access. He has gathered insights from many different perspectives and organizations, including government, consulting, startup businesses, and international finance organizations.

The U.S.-based Mercy Corps has opened a call for expressions of interest in the installation of mini-grids at three refugee camps on the Somali border.

Bboxx rents out offgrid PV systems and TVs to rural villagers across Africa. Customers can buy electricity under a mobile-based pay-as-you-go model.

The planned power plant marks the first phase of a 60 MW scheme 30km north of the capital, N’Djamena. The overall project is being developed by UK-based Private Infrastructure Development Group and French company Smart Energies International.

RES4Africa’s plan to offer a one-stop-shop to tap consolidate all the European sources of funding for African renewables aims to de-risk investments in large-scale renewable energy projects in the continent. The 171-page report entitled “Scaling Up Africa’s renewable power” provides an update on the “renewAfrica Initiative” launched by the RES4Africa foundation together with a range of European stakeholders one year ago.

Almost 60% of Nigeria’s population currently has access to electricity. But this breaks down as 78% in cities and urban areas, and just 39% in rural communities. The Rural Electrification Agency (REA), established by the government as part of electricity sector reforms in 2005, is tasked with bridging this gap and bringing reliable energy supply to the most remote parts of Nigeria. pv magazine spoke with REA CEO Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad about the organization’s strategy and recent progress, as well as the challenges that remain for rural electrification in Nigeria and the role of PV technology.