World Bank

The Africa Solar Industry Association has recorded almost 2 GW of large scale project announcements since the start of last month with 18 countries planning new clean power infrastructure and including energy storage in the plants.

The government of Côte d’Ivoire aims to facilitate the development of 60 MW of solar at two sites via a new tender. The projects will be built under the World Bank’s Scaling Solar program.

The cheap loan package agreed at the weekend is part of a wider €340 million development deal and extends Germany’s record of promoting the energy transition of the South Asian nation.

The planned capacity is expected to be hybridized with diesel power generators across 14 islands.

The island nation’s first utility scale solar park is set to double in size and have energy storage added, with work due to start this month.

The government wants 30% of its power from clean energy sources by 2035 and the 50 MW of solar targeted by the World Bank would make up two-thirds of that ambition.

Energy efficiency, electrification of heating and transport, and the provision of clean cooking facilities are all going in the wrong direction as the Covid crisis deprived millions in sub-Saharan Africa of electricity use, according to a report by the IEA, IRENA, WHO, World Bank and UN Statistics Division.

World Bank arm the International Finance Corp has now extended almost €76 million of credit into two sustainable lending facilities launched via Raiffeisen Bank.

The global off-grid solar appliance market began an uneven recovery from the worst ravages of the global pandemic in the second half of last year, according to market body GOGLA, but more finance and policy support must be made available to have any chance of achieving universal electricity access this decade.

Masdar’s latest, 400 MW solar project win followed hot on the heels of the award of the contract to develop a 457 MW solar field elsewhere in the central Asian nation.