Scatec lands PPA for Lesotho’s first independently built solar plant
The nation’s first independently developed solar farm will have a generation capacity of 20 MW and will sell electricity to the national utility under a 25-year contract.
Cheaper wholesale solar equipment through $10m group-buying fund in Nigeria
Two investors backed by the charitable foundations set up by energy giants have seed-funded the cash pot to lend to African solar companies, who will be able to buy solar kit cheaper thanks to the economies of scale offered by the aggregation of orders.
African Energy Week highlights lack of support for renewables
The closing day of the African Energy Week event held in South Africa this month heard voices casting doubt on a renewables-only energy transition and calling for a gradual change and continued investment in petrochemical production.
Malawi’s first grid scale solar project will shortly be followed by a second
The 20 MW Golomoti PV project will include 10 MWh of lithium-ion battery storage in a first for the sub-Saharan African market, according to its London-based joint developer.
‘Africa should harness green hydrogen, not just export it’
Instead of using its abundant cheap renewable energy potential to generate the gas simply to feed the appetite of industrial consumers in Europe and elsewhere, Africa could attract the heavy manufacturing sectors concerned, such as steelmakers, to its shores, the African Energy Week event heard.
Soft drinks business wants to be biggest industrial solar user in Nigeria
An initial 1.44 MW of solar panels this year appears to have impressed the Seven-Up Bottling Company sufficiently to persuade the business to opt for another 10.5 MW of arrays on its factories.
Irish developer secured half the projects in latest South African renewables tender
The weighted average cost of the electricity to be generated by the latest 975 MW fleet of solar projects procured by a national tender program has fallen more than 50% from the level recorded in the last such exercise, which was abandoned six years ago.
Where are we headed with off-grid PV?
An increasing number of people choose to design their PV system so it can be used even when the grid power has gone – as a back-up, so to speak. But there are markets where off-grid PV is not the back-up solution, but it is the primary source of power. There are numerous examples ranging from holiday homes and house boats in the south of Europe, to remote farmhouses, and rural regions in Africa and Asia where people don’t always have grid access. To this end, our webinar partner Solis has introduced its latest off-grid inverter which kicks into life at a mere 500 V input voltage.
The state of EU renewables – Solar cell plans encouraging but heat pump market could go the same way as European PV did
The European Commission has published its second annual assessment of the competitiveness of the EU’s renewable energy technology industries, and it had a warning for policymakers about the trade balance trend being experienced by heat pump makers.
Floating PV tested at water treatment plant in South Africa
The pilot system was built with the Hydrelio floating platforms developed by French specialist Ciel&Terre. The project performance will be evaluated during a full seasonal weather cycle.
