Africa & Middle East

Continuing Kuwait government efforts to build-out a renewable energy mix for the future, Kuwait University (KU) has teamed with European R&D centre, imec on its silicon solar cell industrial affiliation program.

German PV equipment manufacturer SMA Solar Technology (SMA) has equipped a solar-diesel hybrid plant in Thabazimbi, South Africa with PV modules and inverters.

Two separate PV power plants to be built in the Northern Cape of South Africa will use 100MW worth of ‘V’ series modules from Suntech Power Holdings.

Kuwait has set a target to generate 15% of its electricity demand from renewable energy including solar by 2030.

Thin film manufacturer First Solar has established an operating subsidiary in Cape Town, South Africa. The move follows a recent swathe of large utility-scale PV announcements in South Africa, as part of the country’s first round of renewable energy project bidding.

UK renewable energy company Blue Energy will finance and develop a US$400 million large-scale 155MW PV plant in Ghana which, when complete, is said to represent Africa’s largest PV project.

Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is planning to launch a tender for a 1,800MW PV plant in 2014, media reports reveal.

South African developer BioTherm Energy has announced it has closed on the financing of one wind and two solar PV renewable energy projects located throughout the country.

German development bank KfW has signed off a €100 million loan to Morocco’s solar energy agency MASEN to build a CSP plant in the south-central area of the country.

Megalim Solar Power, a company established by BrightSource Energy and Alstom, has won the bid to build a 121MW solar thermal power plant in Israel. The construction contract was awarded by Israel’s inter-ministerial Tender Committee.