Remote mines, cement factories and shopping malls are a major catalyst for commercial and industrial (C&I) PV in Africa. A new survey from consultancy THEnergy aims to capture the progress so far and the scale of the opportunity to come. The firm's managing director Dr Thomas Hillig explains more, including how you can help assist the work.
The distributed renewable energy (DRE) sector, necessary in a world with millions of people without power, is being held back by a chronic shortage of skilled workers. Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) has just 16,000 people working in renewable energy in a region with 600 million un-electrified people, according to the founders of a new campaign aiming to fill this skills gap.
UK-based off-grid renewables specialist BBOXX and GE have signed off on a partnership to provide energy access for small businesses, schools and other organisations in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Swiss-headquartered firm Meeco has signed a cooperation agreement with Malagasy company Groupe Filatex to build solar projects in Madagascar, starting with two large-scale projects of 7MW and 8MW capacity and one hybrid solar-diesel project comprising of two 500kW parts.
Just a few months after Mozambique’s first ever large-scale PV project reached financial close and construction work began, the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded a grant to pay for a feasibility study for a new project of up to 100MW capacity.
The Nigerian Agricultural Bank, the Bank of Agriculture and electricity supplier Daystar Power have signed off on a cooperation deal for rural electrification in Nigeria.
Fund manager African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) has acquired majority stakes in nine new solar and wind power plants in South Africa, totaling 800MW.
