Africa Solar PV News Snippets

Sonelgaz signs contracts for 3 GW solar capacity auctioned; TDB loan for MPower Ventures Zambia's solar plans; Genesis Energy signs MoU with BOAD for RE in Francophone West African nations.  

Algeria solar auctions: Algeria has signed contracts for 3 GW solar PV capacity with the winners of its 2 tenders (see Algeria Opens Tender For 2 GW Solar PV Capacity). National utility Sonelgaz was reported by the local media to have signed contracts with local and international companies to build this capacity in the form of 20 projects. For the 2 GW tender, Sonelgaz signed 14 contracts with 8 winners to develop 15 projects in 12 states. The 2nd 1 GW tender comprises 5 PV plants distributed over 5 sites in 5 states. It signed 6 contracts with 4 winning bidders. 

$2 million loan for solar in Zambia: The Trade and Development Fund (TDF) has extended a 3-year $2 million term loan to MPower Ventures Zambia Limited. MPower will use the proceeds to increase its deployment range of plug-and-play household solar devices and market-driven productive use assets. These include freezers, sewing machines and water pumps to lower- and middle-income households, SMEs and farmers in peri-urban and rural areas. MPower will also be able to construct 50 new rural energy hubs that allow communities to access energy for domestic and public purposes. MPower expects these hubs to create 30 direct and over 500 indirect jobs. TDF is the concessional and grant window of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB). 

BOAD & Genesis partner: The Genesis Energy Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the West African Development Bank (BOAD) to implement its serial energy infrastructure projects with over 1 GW combined capacity. The technologies this pipeline comprises are gas-to-power, solar, battery energy storage systems (BESS), wind and hydropower projects. These projects are planned to be located within the Francophone West African nations. Genesis says this landmark agreement marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between the 2 partners to deploy critical energy infrastructure projects across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) region.