Page 11 - AfrElec Week 44

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
Bank. Ethiopia started building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2011, while Egypt is concerned that the dam might affect its 55.5bcm annual share of the river water.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the anticipated meeting in Washington “aims at discussing the Renaissance Dam issue.”
Sudan, a downstream Nile Basin country, eyes future benefits of the construction
of upstream Ethiopia’s GERD, despite the concerns of fellow downstream Egypt.
Egypt said in October that recent negotiations with Ethiopia and Sudan over the GERD reached a deadlock, calling for international mediation.
Later in October, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met in Russia and agreed to resume the work of the technical committee studying the processes of filling and operating the dam.
Filling the reservoir, whose total capacity is 74bcm, may take several years. While Ethiopia asked to fill it in five-six years, Egypt seeks
to prolong the period to avoid the negative effects of water shortage, which is a main point of their talks.
The GERD is expected to produce over 6,000MW of electricity and to be Africa’s largest hydropower dam upon completion.
MICROGRIDS
Shell invests in Africa’s
PowerGen Renewable
Energy
PowerGen Renewable Energy has received Series B investment from Shell New Energies, as well as Omidyar Network, Acumen, Renewable Energy Performance
Platform (REPP), EDFI ElectriFI, Sumitomo Corporation, DOB Equity, and Micro-grid Catalytic Capital Partners (MCCP).
The company said the funds would strengthen PowerGen’s position in its core African markets — Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Nigeria — and help it expand into new ones, as the demand for reliable, clean and affordable electricity in Africa continues to grow.
PowerGen aims to connect 1mn more people to reliable electricity over the next five years.
Over 600mn people in Africa lack access to electricity, of which approximately 80% live in rural areas, according to the IEA.
This round of funding follows a Series
A round closed in December 2016 led by DOB Equity and supported by AHL Venture Partners.
I am happy that Shell will be supporting the next chapter in PowerGen’s exciting journey towards meeting the electricity needs of more African customers. We see that PowerGen’s local experience, capabilities and growth to date make it well positioned to serve the expanding African decentralised power market,” said Brian Davis, Shell VP Energy Solutions.
SOLAR
Univergy Solar to invest
$200m in Zambian solar
projects
Spanish-Japanese renewable energy business group Univergy Solar is set to invest more than $200m in two solar power projects in Zambia.
The development will add 200MW to the country’s national grid in 2020, the
government informed media. This renewable capacity will help alleviate loadshedding in the country.
Univergy Solar will develop and implement a 135MW project in northern Zambia
and another 65MW project in Zambia’s Copperbelt, the Zambian embassy in Tokyo said in a statement.
The Japanese firm will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Zambian government to start work on the projects in the first quarter of 2020, Reuters reported.
The two projects are expected to be completed between six and eight months.
“The solar power project will be implemented in collaboration with a Zambian company and is expected to create hundreds of jobs and business opportunities for local firms engaged to maintain the solar farms and generation plants,” the statement said.
Chishimba Kambwili, the leader of Zambia’s opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, has asked Energy Minister Mathew Nkhuwa to resign over his failure to manage loadshedding.
Kambwili has accused Nkhuwa of lying about power importation from South
Africa’s power utility Eskom and EDM of Mozambique, stating that he cannot continue as energy minister because he has failed to manage the energy sector.
Widespread loadshedding persists in the country for up to 10 hours at a time. The loadshedding caused by the incompetence of the Minister is unacceptable, said Kambwili.
The country’s energy mix comprises mainly of hydropower and has an electricity deficit of about 750MW due to low water levels at generation plants after a severe drought hit power production.
SOLAR
ACWA Power secures
contract for 200MW of solar
at Kom Ombo
Saudi independent power producer Acwa Power (IPP) has won the contract to build
the Kom Ombo solar photovoltaic power plant in Upper Egypt. It will have a capacity of 200MWp.
It is no surprise that ACWA Power, an independent power producer (IPP) based
in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will build the Kom Ombo solar photovoltaic plant in Upper Egypt. The company was in a strong position
Week 44 06•November•2019
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