Large-Scale Solar Blossoms in Africa

After years of unconverted pipelines, stale financing and cost barriers, utility-scale solar PV in Africa has started to spring up across the continent. The worldwide decline in equipment prices has of course been a pivotal influence, but Sub-Saharan Africa also now hosts a number of support schemes backed by development banks that are driving significant project sizes in a number of countries. 

New Horizons for Renewable Energies in Morocco and Africa

Morocco has a strategic location in the North West of the African continent and is only 14 kilometers from Europe, across the Strait of Gibraltar. In addition, it has varied relief — the Atlas and Rif Mountains, the Sahara — and the length of its coasts — the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea constitute 3500 km of coastline.

In the Ouarzazate region in central Morocco, for example, the annual average daily global irradiation on a horizontal surface varies from 3.86 to 7.85 kWh/m2, which means an annual average of 7.9 to 11.2 hours of sunshine per day. Concerning the wind potential, the annual average wind speed, at 10 meters above sea level, for the Tangier zone in the north is 10m/s, but for the Dakhla zone in the Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra region, it varies between 7 and 8.5 m/s.

Drought-hit Mozambique Signs First Major Solar Power Deal

The 40MW plant will deliver power to the national grid and produce energy for some 175,000 households, Oslo-based Scatec Solar said in a statement on Tuesday.

Drought-stricken Mozambique will start building its first large scale solar plant in early 2017, after Scatec Solar, which owns several such plants in Africa, signed an $80 million deal to sell electricity to the state-owned energy company for 25 years.

Kenyan Government Lobbies Urge Policy Reforms to Boost Green Energy Access

The Kenyan government must reform policy and regulatory environment to facilitate investments in clean energy, green lobbies said on Wednesday.

Representatives of conservation groups noted that access to clean sources of energy remained a mirage in Kenya due to financing, technological and policy shortfalls.

“Kenya has vast renewable energy potential that should be exploited to accelerate low carbon economic growth. There is need to reorganize fragmented policies and strengthen technical know- how to address energy poverty in the country,” Kenya Climate Change Working Group chairman John Kioli told journalists in Nairobi.

Nigeria to Launch Renewable Energy Policy

Nigeria had concluded plans to launch a national policy on renewable energy and energy efficiency to boost power supply in the country, a top government official said on Friday.

In the policy, government sought to provide an integrated framework for all stakeholders, especially investors in clean energy for power generation and the general development of renewable energy in Nigeria, Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil, told visiting Vice President of China Hydro International, Han Yang, in Abuja.

Africa: Kenya first in continent to have climate change law

KENYA is set to become the first African country to establish an independent Climate Change Authority through the enactment of a law this year, the Parliamentary Network for Renewable Energy and Climate Change (Panerecc) has said. Panerecc chairman David Koech said the authority will be established by the Climate Change Bill, a private members' bill now in Speaker Kenneth Marende's office awaiting to be forwarded to the AG's office for publication.

Cameroon ratifies the International Renewable Energy Agency statute

On Wednesday, the National Assembly of Cameroon passed a bill that authorized the President to ratify the statute of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).  IRENA  is an intergovernmental organization that promotes the widespread and increased adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy by serving as the global voice for renewable energy, helping to facilitate access to information and technical data, and advice on financing renewable energy projects.

Senegal adopts renewable energy law

Senegalese parliamentarians have praised a new law aimed at promoting an enhanced renewable energy production. The bill, named Guidance on Renewable Energy, was adopted unanimously by the country's Parliament and attracted praises for its innovative nature.

Ghana expected to enact renewable energy law

Dr. Joe Oteng Adjei, Ghana's Minister of Energy, has announced that a renewable energy draft bill setting out a feed-in-tariff to ensure guaranteed price for electricity generated from renewable energy sources is before Cabinet.  He told a meeting organised by Afrika Verein in cooperation with Hamburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Ghanaian-German Economic Association that the bill could be passed before the end of the year.