Friday, 4 September

Dear <<First Name>>

The rapid shift to renewable energy is our best hope of halting climate change. And so I read with great pleasure this week that solar made up a staggering 45% of all new installed capacity last year, far surpassing any other energy-generating technology.

Thanks to the ongoing decline of module costs, a record 118GW of new solar was constructed around the world, bringing the total capacity installed to 651GW. This is a truly remarkable achievement given that the technology accounted for less than 44MW in 2010!

From the record-breaking 1.5GW Tengger Desert Solar Park in China to the tens of thousands of solar home systems already providing power to off-grid communities around the world, solar is leading the charge in the clean energy revolution, and showing now signs of abating.

But before we get too excited, BloombergNEF’s report also found coal was making something of a comeback, with installed capacity up by more than double on 2018 figures to 39GW. While solar and other renewables continue to thrive, this is a sobering reminder of how much further we need to go to finally break free from the grasps of fossil fuels.

Cheers

Geoff

Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy

West Africa

Burkina Faso: National utility launches tender for 9MW of solar (PV-Magazine)
- SONABEL plans to build megawatt-scale PV plants at four sites with the tender being supported by the AfDB. 

Ghana: UK Export Finance provides £27 million green loan to solar-powered water project (Business Green)
- Project utilises solar energy to sterilise drinking water and is expected to alleviate up to 225,000 people from daily water poverty.

Niger: Government holds firm on plan to build 60MW solar plant at thermal generation facility (PV-Magazine)
- The plant will share the same grid connection as the 100MW diesel-fueled Gorou Banda power station.

East Africa

Ethiopia: US threatens to cut development aid over GERD (Energy Mix Report)
- US$130 million on the line as Ethiopia suspects Washington of adding pressure to conclude talks.

Kenya: KenGen seeking to build a waste-to-energy plant at Nairobian landfill site (ESI)
- Nairobi Metropolitan Services partners with KenGen to invite EOIs for feasibility studies for the plant.

Kenya: Norfund and Scatec withdraw from Rumuruti solar project (Energy Mix Report)
- Both parties withdrew from the 40MW facility citing development timelines that were too long.

Southern Africa

Mozambique: Construction begins on 120MW Namaacha wind farm (Afrik21)
- IPP Eleqtra is leading the project with two 60MW phases planned to be operational in three years.

South Africa: Goldwind commissions 33MW Excelsior wind farm (renews.biz)
- The 13-turbine wind farm will be located near Swallendam in the Western Cap.

South Africa: 75MW Droogfontein 2 solar park is now in operation (Engineering News)
- The developer, Juwi Renewable Energies, will lead the development of a further two projects with an overall capacity of 250MW.

Africa - general

Egypt: EBRD considering US$54 million loan to 200MW ACWA solar project (PV-Magazine)
- Plant to be built near the 1.8GW Benban solar complex in southern Egypt and will sell power at $0.02752/kWh.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Metier launches US$25 million facility to support C&I renewable energy projects (ESI)
- Investee company Broadreach Energy specialises in building, operating and maintaining clean energy generation and energy efficiency projects.

Rest of World

Solar: Nearly half of all electricity generation constructed in 2019 was solar (PV-Tech)
- Declining module costs helped solar account for 45% - or 118GW - of new capacity added, claims BloombergNEF report.

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