Page 9 - AfrElec Week 33
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AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec
are pleased to further the company’s global development.”
Energy Vault has already worked with Mexi- co’s CEMEX and India’s Tata Power as it tests its new storage technology and aims to build its rst commercially operational facility.
Under its CEO Masayoshi Son, So Bank’s $100bn Vision Fund – the world’s largest tech- nology-investment vehicle – has invested in solar projects in Japan, India and Saudi Arabia. It has contracted for 3 GW of solar capacity in India and 700 MW in Japan.
Son has talked up ambitious plans to build 220 GW in Saudi Arabia and India by 2030.
Yet the company has come up against a num- ber of obstacles, and some of its ambitious solar plans could be in jeopardy.
It has failed to seal any concrete agreements in the desert kingdom, which has talked of moving away from its reliance on fossil fuels.
In India, SoftBank’s subsidiary SB Energy has been accused of manipulating bids for solar capacity, leading to the cancellation in 2018 of 2,400 MW of tenders. e Indian government accused SB Energy, which has plans to invest $20bn to bring online 20 GW of PV capacity across India, of xing the bidding at too high a level.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Kenya seeks funds to make LAPSSET progress
KENYA
KENYA is seeking investors for its Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project as it seeks to make up a shortfall in funding of around KES2.5tn ($24bn).
e broad infrastructure project comprises a re ned fuel pipeline, a crude oil pipeline, a sea port, roads, airports, a railway and resort cities, but progress has been slowed by civil issues and a lack of buy-in from the governments involved.
Execution has been somewhat inevitably slow, not least because of civil war in South Sudan, but the Kenyan elements are the most advanced. A road between Isiolo and Moyale on the Ethiopian border was completed in July 2017 and the LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority (LCDA) announced the completion of the rst of the port’s 22 planned berths earlier this month.
Under the LAPSSET masterplan, the fuel pipeline would eventually extend from Moyale to Hawassa and then to Addis Ababa. Ethiopia’s rapprochement with Eritrea has been seen as weakening its commitment to the project.
Lacking funding, the Kenyan government has turned to the African Union (AU) and other regional investment groups.
A statement from LCDA that was issued last week read: “AU’s special envoy plans to convene a high-level meeting with the countries that fall along Africa’s equatorial land bridge later in the year with an aim of forming these crucial transport infrastructure linkages within the continent.”
The announcement followed a meeting between officials from LCDA and AU High Representative on Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga, who is seen pushing for the pro- ject’s development as an opportunity to increase integration through infrastructure development and trade in East Africa.
In late July, Kenya’s National Lands Com- mission (NLC) started surveying the route of the Lokichar-Lamu pipeline, the oil conduit element of LAPSSET, following the completion of front-end engineering design (FEED) on the project.
Week 33 21•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9
