Page 11 - AfrElec Week 12

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec
Renewvia Energy Corporation.
“Increasing development velocity equates to
an exponential increase in value, credibility with key stakeholders, and ultimately, reliable sources of power that enable community empowerment.”
In February, Renewvia commissioned its first two solar mini-grids in the Niger Delta in Nige- ria, which are part of the Nigerian Electrification Programme funded by the World Bank.
The two combined microgrids will initially power over 400 households and businesses and will use the Nigerian payements provider Paga to offer payment facilities.
In October, Renewvia Energy Corporation said that it has opened two solar microgrids on the Islands of Ndeda and Ringiti in Kenya’s Lake Victoria region. This added to a 20kW facility on Ringiti Island and a 10kW solar and bat- tery-powered plant on Ndeda Island.
The microgrids also use mobile payment platforms to earn revenues and replace kerosene,
petrol and disposable batteries as power sources. Renewvia has also worked with the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to conduct feasibility studies for up to eight new microg- rid projects with 1.5 MW of capacity in remote
regions of Kenya.
DPI said it has been looking to make a strate-
gic investment in utility-scale solar, off-grid and microgrid renewable energy projects, especially where no electricity access is available.
“DPI has been evaluating the off-grid sub-Sa- haran opportunity and felt the most efficient path to take a position is through an established operating platform,” said Kazuomi Kaneto, Founder and CEO of DPI.
“Renewvia presented an immediate scalable solar microgrid development opportunity on a continent where there are many millions of peo- ple living without power.”
DPI did not say how much it was investing in the joint venture with Renewvia.™
Scatec Solar begins to feel the impact of COVID-19
AFRICA
NORWAY’S Scatec Solar, a leading solar devel- oper in Africa and elsewhere, said that is was starting to feel the operational impact of coro- navirus (COVID-19), although it was too early to say if completions dates for projects in Africa would be affected.
The company said on March 25 that its fore- casts for power generation for the first quarter of 2020 would be in line with its expectations. The company said that solar output would be shielded from some of the negative economic impact of lockdowns.
It did say that travel constraints and local regulations had started to impact construction, commissioning and testing of some of its new solar plants.
The company said that it had 711MW of capacity under construction in South Africa, Argentina Malaysia and Ukraine.
It has installed 1.3 GW of solar capacity worldwide and has a total of 1.9 GW currently under management or construction on four continents.
It aims to have 4.5 GW in operation and under construction by end of 2021.
In the first quarter to date, it has completed solar projects in South Africa and Sudan. In February, it connected a second 86MW tranche of capacity at its 258MW Dyason’s Klip 1 solar complex in South Africa.
In Egypt, Scatec Solar has developed 400MW at the Benban Solar Park. The Norwegian com- pany and its partners KLP Norfund and Africa 50 have a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with state-utility EETC for their six solar projects at Benban.
“The Company has to date not experienced any impact of COVID-19 on operating assets or on delivery of power to our customers and con- sider the risk to be low,” CEO Raymond Carlsen said.
Power production is a necessity in both normal and extraordinary times so Scatec “is shielded from some of the negative effects many other businesses are facing.”™
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