Page 8 - AfrElec Week 24

AfrElec INVESTMENT AfrElec

Green investment dips in Africa, Middle East

NORTH AFRICA RENEWABLE energy investment in the Middle momentum of their renewable energy buildout,”
East and Africa slipped by 8% to $15.2bn in 2019, the report read, adding: “The fact that equipment
from a record total of $16.5bn in 2018, accord- prices, particularly for solar photovoltaic (PV),
ing to a report from Frankfurt School-UNEP have been falling so fast has tended to increase
Centre/BNEF. policy-makers’ caution over the right timing for
The report noted that several countries have new capacity.”
become significant investors, including South The report highlighted that Egypt had can-
Africa, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Kenya. celled a giant coal project in October 2019.
These countries have seen sizeable falls in The country is now looking at the possibility of
investment, owing in large part to gaps in auc- 500MW of additional renewable energy capacity.
tion programmes. The report further noted that governments
The report highlighted that the three most and companies worldwide have committed to
active renewable energy markets in North Africa adding some 826GW of new non-hydro renew-
and the Levant are Egypt, Morocco and Jordan. able power capacity in the decade to 2030, at a
These three countries have seen a total of $15.7bn likely cost of around $1 trillion.
invested during the five years from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, a total of 184GW of new renewable
In 2019, however, investments were relatively power was added worldwide, the highest amount
weak for all of them. The biggest asset financings ever, which reflected a 20GW increase on 2018.
were $302mn for the 420MW ONEE Morocco This included 118GW of new solar systems
PV portfolio, and $325mn for the 250MW and 61GW of wind turbines. In the same year,
Lekela Power West Bakr wind farm in Egypt. renewable energy capacity investment stood
“In all these countries, there were gaps at $282.2bn, just 1% higher than the previous
between the auction rounds that have fuelled the year.™

TARIFFS

Nigeria adamant on July tariff rise

NIGERIA NIGERIAN Power Minister Sale Mamman has of Way acquisition and environmental impact
told a parliamentary committee hearing that mitigation.
the country’s electricity tariff rise will take place “The fund should be provided for in the 2020,
in July, despite doubts caused by the economic 2021 and 2022 Appropriation of the Ministry of
impact of coronavirus COVID-19. Power,” he added.
Mamman told the Senate’s Investigative Pub- Mamman also said the COVID-19 pan-
lic Hearing on the Power Sector Recovery Plan demic had a great economic impact, not just on
and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic the the health sector, but the overall economy of the
latter had affected the government’s efforts to country.
improve the electricity market’s financial sus- He said: “indeed, the prevalence of the pan-
tainability under the Power Sector Recovery demic has already reduced productivity due
Programme. to the strategy adopted globally to contain it.
The tariff increase was delayed from April This by default affects the purchasing power of
for three months because of COVID-19, but it is consumers and the demand for electricity in
now unlikely to be extended, he confirmed. general.”
However, he said due to the COVID-19 out- “The current situation in the Nigerian power
break and customer apathy, the proposed tariff sector is that a lot of capital investment is being
review was delayed by three months. made, most of which is dependent on donor
He said: “the impact of this means the subsidy funding, loans and budgetary allocation.
being incurred in maintaining the current tariff “For projects [where] we have already
level had to be maintained till July 2020, when secured their funding, we do not expect any
the proposed tariff review will be implemented. adverse effect.”
“The challenge we are currently facing in However, he said his ministry was proactively
the development and expansion of our trans- seeking strategies to identify projects that would
mission line is budget and release of Federal require counterpart funding in the face of dwin-
Government’s commitment [to] the estimated dling national revenue so as to deliver within the
sum of NGN32bn ($82mn), primarily for Right projected timelines.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2020