eLTE private network at Ghana hydropower facility most challenging African project yet for Huawei

The evolved long-term evolution (eLTE) broadband private network that Chinese information and communication technology company Huawei installed for the Bui Power Authority’s (BPA’s) hydropower plant, in northern Ghana, was one of the most challenging industrial private broadband network projects the company has encountered in Africa so far. “It was a good test of our capacity for building broadband private networks in such complex situations,” Huawei corporate communications VP Edison Xie told Engineering News during a site visit of the hydropower plant and related infrastructure last week.
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Netherlands, Denmark to help create $1bn South African hydrogen fund

State-backed firms from the Netherlands will help create a $1-billion green hydrogen fund for investment in South African projects as part of Dutch and Danish investments in renewable energy announced at an event in Pretoria attended by the leaders of the three countries. While the breakdown of investment in the fund wasn’t given, Boitumelo Mosako, the CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), said in an earlier interview that Denmark would be involved.
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Policy gaps, rigid legislation highlighted as key hurdles in just energy transition

Policy gaps and rigid legislation continue to hold back South Africa’s energy transition, according to a new report supported by diversified miner Anglo American and compiled by research organisation Economist Impact titled ‘Powering Progress: Policy shifts and economic frameworks to enable South Africa’s energy transition’. The report noted that the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) remained the key framework governing the energy landscape. However, the consensus among policy experts is that the strategy is incomplete and outdated.
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16 of TiAuto’s stores complete Phase 1 solar conversion; Phase 2 underway

Sixteen of TiAuto’s retail stores have completed their conversion to solar power, as part of Phase 1 of a project to reduce the group’s dependence on Eskom and to move to renewable energy. The company notes that Phase 2 “is now well-underway”, with the goal of having all TiAuto’s stores running on solar energy within the next three years.
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40 MW Kesses solar PV plant in Kenya now operational

The 40 MW Kesses solar photovoltaic (PV) plant, in Kenya, which was built at a cost of $87-million, is now operational. The plant was developed by Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), in partnership with the Standard Bank Group acting through Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Stanbic Bank Kenya and its project partner Alten Kenya Solarfarms.
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RMB partners with Sturdee Energy to accelerate investment in renewables in Southern Africa

Corporate and investment bank RMB has partnered with independent power producer (IPP) Sturdee Energy to help it grow its business in the Southern African renewable energy sector. RMB says its equity investment in Sturdee will give the IPP the firepower to further build out its immediate pipeline of 175 MW and position it to deliver flexible power purchase agreements to target the increasing liberalisation of the sub-Saharan Africa electricity markets.
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Ghana aims for 30% nuclear, 20% renewables in energy mix by 2070

Ghana is gunning for nuclear energy to account for 30% of its energy mix by 2070, with renewable energy set to account for about 20%. “We see three key energy sources play a leading role in the supply of energy for the people of this country. First, we want to expand renewable energy to about 20 000 MW by 2070. That will mean that renewable energy will account for 20% of the country’s energy mix,” Energy Ministry power directorate deputy director Seth Mahu told journalists in Accra last week.
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Ghana authority to expand solar and hydro capacity

Ghana’s Bui Power Authority (BPA), with the collaboration of the grid operator, is planning on constructing a new 50 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) farm, in Dagbon, in the north of the country. This is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, BPA CEO Samuel Kofi Dzamesi has told Engineering News.
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Eskom’s new grid queuing rules governed by ‘first ready, first served’ approach

State-owned electricity utility Eskom is preparing to issue updated grid queuing rules that will outline how it plans to manage scarce grid connection capacity in a way that avoids “hogging” of capacity and ensures that only “shovel-ready” project are allocated capacity. The new approach is contained in what Eskom terms its Interim Grid Capacity Allocation Rules (IGCAR) document, which outlines a shift from the ‘first come, first served’ framework that has hitherto been implemented to one based on ‘first ready, first served’.
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SA can add 30GW of wind energy in 10 years, but grid challenges will be our undoing – expert

A recent survey shows there are about 30GW of wind energy projects in various stages of development. While South Africa has the skills to support the rollout of this generation capacity, the lack of grid capacity is the biggest hurdle in deploying the renewables, according to an industry expert. Niveshen Govender, CEO of the South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea), expressed optimism that wind generation capacity would increase tenfold from the current 3.4GW installed currently. He was citing the Renewable Energy Grid Survey, which was presented by Eskom officials to both the solar PV and wind energy associations earlier this month.
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