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Two-thirds of energy transition finance in developing economies to be private – report

Yearly clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies will need to more than triple from $770-billion currently to as much as $2.8-trillion by the early 2030s in order to meet rising energy demand in a way that is aligned with the Paris Agreement, a new international report states. Produce jointly by the International Energy Agency and the International Finance Corporation the study also calculates that a far steeper seven-fold investment increase (from $260-billion to $1.9-trillion yearly) is required once China is excluded from this grouping of countries.
June 21, 2023 by

Small businesses need support as they take heavy strain from loadshedding crisis

Up to 64% of small businesses in South Africa’s townships stop operating when there is loadshedding, about 60% have had to reduce employee numbers to survive and about 7% have permanently shut their businesses as the costs to trade had become unrecoverable. These were some of the findings of a recent study presented during a webinar, titled ‘The Energy Crisis: What is being done to support small businesses?’ hosted by small enterprise institution the Small Business Institute on June 20.
June 21, 2023 by

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.
June 21, 2023 by

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.
June 20, 2023 by

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.
June 20, 2023 by

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.
June 20, 2023 by

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.
June 20, 2023 by

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.
June 20, 2023 by

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.
June 20, 2023 by