News in Brief: CleanMax and Hitachi partner for rooftop solar in India for Japanese companies, Tyler Technologies installs a solar-plus-storage system at its Texas headquarters, Germany's Redavia expands into West Africa with solar for the country's Maritime University, more community solar is completed in Massachusetts and Surana wins a bid for 5MW of rooftop solar in Andhra Pradesh.
Emerging market project developer, owner and operator Access Power has announced the shortlist of winners for financing under its Access Co-Development Facility (ACF) fund, with solar forming the largest share of projects.
A 50MW grid-tied solar PV plant in Nigeria’s Kaduna state has been selected as one of the winners for financing under Access Power’s Access Co-Development Facility (ACF) fund – the first crowdsourcing origination platform of its kind that provides funding to local developers.
Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister of Power Works and Housing, has signed off on two put/call option agreements (PCOA) with solar developers Afrinegia Nigeria Limited and CT Cosmos Nigeria Limited.
The theme of this week's Movers & Shakers is international expansion. PAYG off-grid solar provider Azuri Technologies is strengthening its leadership team to target West Africa, while Vancouver, Canada-based Solar Alliance Energy targets US assets and expands its sales team to accommodate for this. ABB appoints new regional heads to ensure direct market contact with Europe and the AMEA region.
PEG Africa is a pioneering pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar company focused on West Africa. Co-founder and CEO Hugh Whalan stopped by PV Tech to discuss why this business model is filling gaps in Africa's off-grid solar market, and how it has potential to evolve into meeting needs of consumers beyond electricity access.
Monica Maduekwe, coordinator of Gender Mainstreaming at the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) caught up with PV Tech to discuss ways in which the organisation is addressing existing barriers to equal participation, including utilising a US$1 million fund from the African Development Bank.
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded a grant of more than US$860,000 to Ghanaian solar company Buipe Solar, in support of a feasibility study for a 20MW PV project in the north of the country.
San Francisco-based SunFunder is a solar finance business with a mission to unlock capital for solar energy in emerging markets. It primarily aggregates investment capital through its beyond-the-grid and Solar Empowerment funds, thereby giving accredited investors the opportunity to invest in their on-grid and off-grid solar portfolio. Andrea Griffin, SunFunder’s vice president of global business development, stopped by PV Tech to discuss investment, currency risk and energy storage in West Africa.
GreenWish Partners, a renewable energy developer dedicated to African renewables, will invest US$280 million to build 200MW worth of solar PV plants in Nigeria.
Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) executive director Ruka Sanusi and GCIC communications and marketing director Abdul-Nasser Alidu spoke to PV Tech about the work of the Centre, and how it is helping to bridge gaps in Ghana’s energy sector for local businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs.
GreenWish Partners, a competitive and reliable renewable power provider with headquarters in Paris and across Africa, has been successful in implementing utility-scale PV plants in Africa. With a mission to demonstrate the potential of renewable energy to fuel the economic and social development of the continent, the company is well on its way to achieving its 600MW of installed capacity in Africa goal. GreenWish caught up with PV Tech to discuss the key ingredients in achieving such a feat in a region where large-scale projects have traditionally been difficult to commission.
