Page 9 - AfrElec Week 08

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec
Scatec Solar and its partners reached finan- cial close for the Upington development on April 5, 2018, agreeing on a total of ZAR4.76bn ($313mn).
Standard Bank led a consortium of com- mercial banks and DFIs providing non-re- course project finance of ZAR3.68bn ($242mn), accounting for 77% of the total project cost.
When completed, the Upington solar power complex will provide clean energy for around 120,000 households and lead to the abatement of more than 600,000 tonnes of CO2 per year annually.
The last of the three 86-MW solar plants under construction is expected to reach com- mercial operation within the next few months.
“This is another great achievement by our team in South Africa, bringing this important project online earlier than planned and support- ing South African power supply in this time of much needed electricity,” said Scatec Solar CEO
Raymond Carlsen.
Scatec Solar has installed 1.3 GW of solar
plants worldwide and has a total of 1.9 GW cur- rently under management or construction on four continents. It aims to have 4.5 GW in oper- ation and under construction by end of 2021.™
FUELS
Fuel shortages persist in Sudan outside Khartoum
SUDAN
SHORTAGES of motor fuel seem to have eased in Khartoum and surrounding areas, but sup- plies remain scarce in the north-eastern and south-western regions of Sudan.
In the south-west, the states of Northern Darfur and Southern Darfur are both reporting shortfalls of gasoline and diesel, according to Radio Dabanga.
Residents of Kutum, a town in Northern Dar- fur, said last week that many drivers were buying fuel on the black market, since filling stations were unable to meet demand.
Diesel is fetching four times the official price on the black market, while gasoline is selling for 12 times the normal rate, said Yahya El Khims, a member of the Sudanese Professionals Associa- tion (SPA) in Kutum. The price hikes have driven transportation costs up, and complaints about the shortages and high prices are widespread, he told the radio station.
Meanwhile in Northern Darfur, demonstra- tors gathered in front of local government build- ings in Saraf Umra to protest about ongoing problems with fuel supplies. Members of resist- ance committees and the Forces for Freedom and
Change (FFC) group blamed the local adminis- tration for the shortages and called for the dis- missal of the government officials involved in distribution. Additionally, they complained that local farmers had not received their fair share of fuel in recent distribution campaigns.
In the north-east, motor fuel continued to be in short supply in the states of Kassala and Red Sea In the latter state, drivers and motorcyclists were reportedly queuing up for miles, as filling stations in the towns of Suakin and Port Sudan did not have enough gasoline or diesel to meet demand.
In Kassala, fuel shortages led the local arm of the General Transportation Union (GTU) to stage a strike that led to the shutdown of all forms of public transport over the weekend.
Union members staged the work stoppage in a bid to force local authorities to raise ticket prices, arguing that this move was necessary because of the difficulty of obtaining adequate fuel. As of press time, no word was available on the central government’s response to continued shortages and protests outside Khartoum. ™
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