Friday, 11 December

Dear <<First Name>>

Providing affordable electricity to the world's poorest people on a commercially sustainable basis is a huge challenge for private developers and investors. If you’re running a business selling electricity at a price your customers cannot afford it’s going to fail, and fast.

But if we are ever to achieve universal energy access for all in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, then it is a challenge that must be overcome and soon.

This week, REPP invested £1 million in Mobile Power, a UK-based company that is providing genuinely affordable energy access to off-grid communities in Liberia and Sierra Leone through an innovative solar-powered battery lending scheme. The investment - along with another £1 million from other Series A investors - should now enable the company to grow rapidly and provide more customers with reliable, clean power.

Of course, there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution to the energy access challenge, and having a successful approach in one part of the world does not necessarily mean it can be replicated in another. But Mobile Power’s novel business model is both effective and scalable, and with that has the potential to deliver far-reaching impacts across the region.

Cheers

Geoff

West Africa

Benin: Government announces the creation of a new electricity generation company (Afrik21)
- The publicly-owned entity Beninese Electricity Production Company (SBPE) will help contribute to the effective development of renewable energy. 

Ghana: 5MW floating solar plant commissioned by BPA (Afrik21)
- The plant sits in the reservoir of the Bui hydro dam and is the first phase of a 250MW envisioned floating solar system.

Mali: Government greenlights the 93MW Touna solar plant (PV-Magazine)
- Phanes Group and Welink Energy will build the US$106 million facility in the south of the country, with construction expected to take 18 months.

Togo: Government launches works on 240KM of new transmission lines (Afrik21)
- US$52 million in financing is being provided by the Exim Bank of India and the project will be constructed by three Indian companies.

East Africa

DRC: Gridworks consortium has been appointed as the preferred bidder for the Essor A2E Initiative (ESI)
- The Essor programme aims to build hybrid solar power generation and distribution projects in three cities in the north of the country.

Uganda: Government launches construction on an interconnection with South Sudan (The Monitor Uganda)
- The interconnection would enable the export of excess electricity and is expected to be completed next year.

Southern Africa

South Africa: Pretoria High Court cancels Thabametsi coal plant (Afrik21)
- The court's decision was based on the severe environmental impacts of the project, which would have been one of the highest emitting coal plants in the world.

Africa - general

General: SunCulture raises US$14 million to distribute solar power water pumps (Afrik21)
- Energy Access Ventures and Acumen are among a number of investors in the Kenyan start-up that plans on distributing its systems across seven African countries.

General: AIIM rainses US$80 million to finance sustainable infrastructure in SSA (Afrik21)
- The African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), which has already mobilised US$400 million since the start of the pandemic, will invest in the power, transport and digital infrastructure sectors.

General: AfDB contributes US$20 million to the Off-Grid Recovery platform (PV-Magazine)
- The fund size will total around US$50-60 million and will be available for off-grid companies operating in Africa.

General: Doing business in Africa not a one-size-fits-all proposition (ESI)
- Recent ESI roundtables about doing business in the energy sector in five African countries - Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana - observe some common themes.

General: AfDB and IRENA join to support Africa's energy transition (Engineering News)
- AfDB and IRENA will jointly support investment in low-carbon energy projects across the continent.

Rest of World

General: Amazon becomes the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world (PV-Tech)
- Amazon has invested in 26 new utility-scale projects worldwide, bringing its renewable energy capacity to 6.5GW.

General: 36 markets will deploy more than 1GW of solar capacity by 2029, according to report (PV-Tech)
- Report by Fitch indicates that rising demand for green projects is leading to an expansion of the traditional geographical base of solar markets.

Currencies