Friday, 01 July

Dear <<First Name>>

Camco’s Paul Makumbe will be discussing the challenges and opportunities around enhancing private sector participation in renewable energy financing in the Pacific at a high-level meeting of the region’s energy officials next week. 

The three-day event is being organised by the international development organisation, Pacific Community, in preparation for the upcoming 5th Pacific Regional Energy and Transport Ministers Meeting and starts on Tuesday. 

Camco’s invitation to present alongside the Pacific Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (PCREEE) is an honour and reflects the growing recognition of the TIDES blended finance platform, which we developed last year to provide flexible financing to local renewable energy developers in the Pacific. 

The virtual meeting comes at a time of rising fuel costs and global supply chain disruption. Against that backdrop, I hope the talks will serve as an important reminder of the enormous opportunity the clean energy transition offers island nations in terms of state-directed economic growth, meeting their climate targets and improving communities’ resilience to the impacts of climate change. 

Readers are probably aware that Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK and the US recently launched the Partners in the Blue Pacific initiative, aiming “for more effective and efficient cooperation in support of Pacific Island priorities”. I sincerely hope that supporting the clean energy transition of vulnerable Pacific communities will be a key pillar of this new alliance. 

And in other island-related news, Sustainable Energy for All this week published Camco's Ieva Indriunaite‘s thought piece exploring why more women are not taking a leading role in the development of Small Island Developing States’s clean energy sectors – and what needs to be done to address the imbalance. You can read it here. 

Cheers 

Geoff Sinclair

Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy

West Africa

Ghana: Empower New Energy to power chocolate factory (The Electricity Hub)
- The investor has signed a deal with Barry Callebaut Group to deploy solar PV panels on its manufacturing site, with an expected capacity of 640kWp.

Nigeria: Bboxx and Solar Sister partner to boost clean energy access (The Electricity Hub)
- Bboxx will provide Solar Sister with its entry-level clean energy product, Flexx10, following the successful launch of its entry-level brand Bless earlier this year. 

Nigeria: Renewable energy can solve country’s energy crisis (Blueprint)
- Op-ed exploring challenges currently facing the Nigerian energy industry and how clean energy, particularly solar energy systems, could be the solution. 

East Africa

Kenya: Country partners with Eswatini on geothermal energy and literacy (Think Geoenergy)
- The two countries will lead in forming a coalition of Commonwealth member states that will work together to develop and execute strategies on geothermal energy and literacy. 

Rwanda: 5.5MW hydropower plant inaugurated (ESI Africa)
- The Mushishito-Rukarara V plant is located in the Nyamagabe District and will boost electricity supply in the country and reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 14,500 tonnes per year.

Southern Africa

Namibia: Plans to purchase surplus power from green hydrogen (Zawya)
- The country intends to purchase power from its USD10 billion green hydrogen project to substitute imported energy from South Africa. 

South Africa: Country’s largest battery energy storage system to be deployed in Eastern Cape (AEP)
- Ambri has announced that Earth & Wire has placed an order for its liquid metal battery system. Once installed, it will serve a 300MW, 1,200MWh combined wind and solar-powered generation site.

South Africa: Eskom announces more power cuts (rfi)
- The utility has imposed the toughest electricity rationing in two and a half years due to disrupted production at several plants.

South Africa: Eskom invites bids for Request for Information (RFI) (ESI Africa)
- The RFI is a stand-alone information gathering and market testing exercise, intended to inform and assist Eskom’s strategic development for the supply, delivery, off-loading and storage of natural gas to the Komati Power Station.

Africa - other

Egypt: MIGA issues guarantee to refinance solar parks (ESI Africa)
- Virtuo Finance has secured the USD98.3 million guarantee to boost the sustainable refinancing of six operational solar power plants in Benban Solar Park.

ESG: AfDB launches first ESG African frontier-currency bond (AfDB)
- The UGX5 million bond is the first ever African frontier currency-denominated environmental, social and governance issuance by a multilateral institution. 

Green finance: IFC invests in Elsewedy Electric for clean energy access (Zawya)
- The IFC has invested USD150 million in the company to expand, upgrade and enhance sustainable renewables manufacturing operations in several African countries.

Hydropower: Africa to receive USD290 million for hydropower development (The Electricity Hub)
- The UK government has announced a new capital investment in the continent’s hydropower sector as Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he welcomes the green industrial revolution ‘sweeping across Africa’.

Tunisia: 200kW floating solar plant switched on (TaiyangNews)
- The plant has been energised by STEG, the country’s electricity and gas company, and is the first such PV facility to have become operational in all of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Pacific

Climate change: ‘Intolerable tide’ of people displaced, claims UN expert (Pina)
- In a recent report, UN Special Rapporteur, Ian Fry, outlines a six-point plan to address the human rights aspects of the climate crisis, highlighting that those living in Small Island Developing States are disproportionately at risk. 

Fiji: Asian Development Bank approves USD150 million in loans for COVID-19 recovery (Pina)
- The investment aims to help the country recover from the pandemic and build resilience against climate and disaster risk.  

Fiji: Country prepares to welcome leaders for the 51^st Pacific Islands Forum (Pina)
- Leaders from across the region will gather 11-14 July in Suva, providing an opportunity to strengthen relationships and reset goals and priorities for regionalism and collective action.

New Zealand: Country supports Indonesia in renewables (Antara News)
- The countries’ partnership on renewable energy and supporting the energy transition spans over 50 years, and has become increasingly important with the looming threats of climate change.

Rest of the world

Bangladesh: Country and World Bank sign USD515 million financing agreement (ESI Africa)
- The financing aims to strengthen the country’s Electricity Distribution Modernisation Programme, which looks to increase the delivery, reliability and efficiency of electricity supply and readiness for sustainable transformation.

Climate change: 'Worrying gap' in clean energy investment (FT)
- Op-ed on the concerning disparity in renewable energy investments between advanced economies and developing nations, which was put into the spotlight this week ahead of the G7 leaders meeting.

Switzerland: Revolutionary 'water battery' could be primary renewable energy source (EuroNews) 
- A water battery capable of storing electricity equivalent to 400,000 electric car batteries will start operating next week. It is hoped the battery which will play an important role in stabilising power supplies in the country and Europe.

Share this newsletter!

Currencies