New quest for renewables across Africa

Recently, Dangote Group of Companies, Kano State Government, and Black Rhino Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding MoU for a $150 million Solar Power project signposting one of the many new renewable projects across Africa. The power project, which is slated for completion in 24 months, will generate 100 Mega Watts of electricity for both industrial and domestic use in Kano State.

“The power plant which will be fully financed jointly by Dangote Industries Limited, and our global strategic partner-The Black Rhino Group, will be a state- of -the -art renewable energy plant that will convert the abundant energy of the sun into quality clean electricity with no deleterious impact on our environment,” said Mansur Ahmed, who signed the MoU behalf of Aliko Dangote, Group President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group.

In May this year, Access Power, a developer, owner and operator of power projects in emerging markets in partnership with EREN Renewable Energy, a global independent power producer announced five shortlisted candidates of the 2017 Access Co-Development Facility (ACF) competition, the third edition of the innovative $7 million funding and support platform for renewable energy projects in Africa.

The five shortlisted projects were: Zimbabwe – 75MW Kadoma Solar PV project; Tanzania – 30MW Kondoa Solar PV project; Rwanda – 9.7MW Rukarara Hydro project; Ethiopia – 75MW Beseka Solar project; Ghana – 48MW Winneba Wind project.

Of the five, three were awarded funding; 30MW, Kondoa, Solar PV project, 9.7MW, Rukarara, Hydro project, and 48MW, Winneba, Wind project. Together, the projects will provide more than 85MW of electricity, which is enough to power more than 420,000 homes and businesses across the three countries.

There are other renewable power projects springing up across Africa. ACWA Power recently signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the government of Egypt for long-term renewable energy projects to be executed under Round 2 of the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) programme. Under the agreement, the Saudi Arabian energy company will develop, finance, build, own and operate three solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in Benban with collective capacity of 165.5MWp.

In Southern Africa, NEO I SPV, a subsidiary of OnePower Lesotho secured a $695,500 grant to facilitate preparations of a bankable business case for the development of the Lesotho 20MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant. Once developed, the PV plant is said to be the country’s first utility-scale solar PV project. The funds have been approved by the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a fund managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM