Sub-Saharan Africa

Four projects, planned to be located across several regions, will be developed through private-public partnerships and a development program supported by the United States.

The installation will be Africa’s first privately financed, utility scale floating solar installation. A group of pre qualified bidders inspected the site and are expected to submit full technical and financial documentation by September.

A representative of South Africa’s energy regulator said deals signed between 2011 and 2013 must be subject to lower tariffs to ease the financial crisis at national utility Eskom. The suggestion failed to convince delegates at an Africa Energy Forum panel discussion in Lisbon, however.

The 21st Africa Energy Forum, this year in Lisbon, kicked off yesterday and will run until Friday. The meeting offers an insight into the continent’s energy markets.

The buyer has not disclosed how much it invested in the subsidiary of German EPC contractor Juwi, which is building four PV power plants with 250 MW of total generation capacity under the nation’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Program.

There was plenty of innovation on display at this year’s SNEC, which closed yesterday afternoon at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. The three-day exhibition ran from Tuesday to Thursday, was well attended and still ranks as the world’s largest solar energy trade show.

The Japanese conglomerate is leading a $26 million equity investment in Azuri Technologies, which provides pay-as-you-go solar home solutions to off-grid communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has agreed to finance a feasibility study for the country’s first large-scale PV project, which is a 20 MW solar facility that has been under development since 2017, in the tiny African country’s Mafeteng district.

This project is part of the Djiboutian government’s efforts to develop renewable energy in the country, with a target to achieve 100% renewable generation by 2020.

Scatec Solar has connected the next part of its 400 MW tracking and bifacial PV plant to the grid in Egypt’s Benban complex. The entire project is set to fully come online throughout the second half of the year. Meanwhile, the company has also secured additional funding for a 33 MW solar project in Mali.