Africa & Middle East

Supply chain woes, spiralling energy prices and the COVID-19 pandemic have reversed the downward trend in average business interruption (BI) claims for renewables developers, with sector-wide average business downtime days up by 38% on 2016.  

Faster action should be taken to counter the threat of cyberattacks in the energy industry as professionals raise concerns about the possibility of operational shutdowns and damaged assets, according to new research from risk management and quality assurance provider DNV.

The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has issued a stark warning concerning the “dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption” in an speech in which he set out “five critical actions to jumpstart the renewable energy transition”.

The world added record amounts of renewable energy last year with 295GW of capacity deployed, up 6% year-on-year, despite supply chain constraints, project delays and high commodity prices, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which also expects nearly 320GW to be deployed this year.  

The global solar community has called for “robust and fast policies” alongside increased international cooperation to accelerate PV deployment and the energy transition.

Energy advisory and assurance provider DNV has introduced two joint industry projects (JIPs) aimed to standardise the development of floating PV (FPV).

Off-grid solar specialist Sun King has raised US$260 million in a Series D funding round aimed to expand global access to affordable solar energy across Africa and Asia.

Global solar installations are expected to increase five-fold, making up nearly half of all power generation by 2050 as renewables become the “new baseload”.

Tech major Amazon has added 37 new renewable energy projects around the world, with a total of 3.5GW of additional power to its already 12.2GW portfolio of renewable energy.