Africa

An ageing 545MW wind farm in Egypt is to be reborn as a 3GW PV and wind hybrid facility under a provisional repowering plan agreed last week.

The EAAIF, FMO and DEG have invested €84 million (US$89.2 million) into AXIAN Energy’s Kolda solar-plus-storage portfolio in Senegal.

Located in the Free State province, the project will be owned by Teraco and is expected to be operational in 2026.

A surge in rooftop solar has helped resolve load shedding in South Africa, but this has led to a decline in the demand for residential PV.

A consortium consisting of CIP, AP Møller Capital and TE H2 has partnered to build 1GW of renewables to produce green ammonia in Morocco.

Sonangol and Qinghai Lihao Clean Energy plan to build a polysilicon plant, which will produce PV modules made of quartz ore, in Angola.

Construction of the cell plant in Ethiopia is expected to start in November 2024, with the start of production aimed at the end of the first quarter of 2025.

To date, two 700MW high-voltage cables between Morocco and Spain are the only interconnections between the two continents.

Investment in off-grid solar will be essential to provide electricity to 398 million people who are expected to be in energy poverty by 2030.

South Africa's announced 10% import duty on solar modules poses challenges for developers with tighter profit margins.