Africa

Uganda’s government seeks proposals to bring off-grid solar solutions to 89 post primary education institutions across the country.

There is potential for solar PV and storage to snap a significant share of the distributed energy industry in frontier markets, says BNEF. Both telecoms and agriculture present interesting opportunities; SE Asia is an emerging micro grid hotspot; pay-as-you-go solar is seeing strong growth; and China is recording substantial business.

The French developer was selected by Senegal’s power utility Senelec to install 10 solar power plants across four different regions of the African country.

The facility is planned to improve liquidity of developers of renewable energy projects up to 50 MW across Africa.

German PV developer BayWa r.e. has completed an 86 kW PV + storage project, which will power irrigation equipment for farmers in Zambia. The project marks Baywa r.e.’s first entrance on to the African continent, where the company says it has significant plans for expansion.

Despite 7% lower product sales, the latest global Off-grid solar market report from the World Bank Group reveals that market is thriving. However, industry needs to move quicker if it is to achieve global 2030 universal energy access goal.

The U.S.-based peer-to-peer solar equipment leasing marketplace Sun Exchange will use the funds for its pipeline of commercial-scale solar power projects.

Dr. Sam Duby, Africa Director for TFE Consulting, sat down with PV Magazine to discuss insights from TFE’s new report “Kenya: The World’s Microgrid Lab”, the importance of on-the-ground experience in energy access projects, and how tech and social innovation in Africa will be the headline of the next decade.

A €4 million fund will be used to support an initiative launched by the French Development Agency and the country’s power utility Eletricidade de Moçambique, E.P. (EDM).

The tender is part of the government plan to develop up to 500 MW of solar PV via the World bank’s Scaling Solar program.