Ugandan youth activist stuns Berlin energy transition event
Vanessa Nakate shocked organisers of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue by delivering a speech highlighting how she and a fellow youth activist had to submit their presentations for approval in advance of the event and were banned from criticising any of the politicians involved.
African petrol stations embracing solar
Roof-mounted solar, and even storage systems, provide cheaper power than mains electricity or diesel generation, prompting companies such as Total to install modules at forecourts across the continent.
Development lender announces 30 MW Burkina Faso solar project
The monocrystalline facility, planned near the town of Pâ by Swiss-owned developer Urbasolar following a tender, will help the government towards its target of reaching 200 MW of solar capacity this year.
Nairobi’s Sunfunder sets up $70m pot for solar and storage in Africa and Asia
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.
First PPA-linked solar park in Zambia
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.
20 MW/5 MWh solar-plus-storage project set to begin construction in Malawi
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.
Kenyan utility kicks off tender for small solar parks
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.
Storage and PAYG critical to deployment of African off-grid renewables
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.
Finance for 49 mini-grids in Sierra Leone and Uganda
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.
Peer-to-peer leased solar for African schools
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.
