Friday, 9 April

Dear <<First Name>>

Next Tuesday will see the start of Island Finance Forum 2021, a landmark event aiming to highlight the unique financial challenges faced by global island communities - as well as the solutions for sustainable economic recovery and inclusive growth in a post-pandemic world.

The four-day Forum is being hosted by Island Innovation and Camco is a proud sponsor. It will bring together senior financiers, development partners and regulators to share and exchange expertise on sustainable and inclusive financial structures in island communities. 

The virtual event will be made up of a variety of interactive sessions that attendees are free to choose from, including networking opportunities to meet and exchange ideas. I am myself taking part in the Financing the Green Energy Transition and Low-Carbon Infrastructure session at 11am BST on Thursday (15th).

If you want to join the more than 3,500 confirmed registrations for the free-to-attend Forum, click here and maybe I’ll see you there!

Cheers

Geoff Sinclair

Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy

West Africa

Chad: Qair begins construction on 30MW of solar projects (PV-Magazine)
- The two 15MW facilities, Lamadji and Gassi, are located on the outskirts of N’Djamena and it is expected they will reach commercial operation next year.

Mali: Government approves two 83MWp solar power plants (Afrik21)
- The agreements will see a 50MWp plant built in Fana by Legendre Energie and a 33MW plant in Ségou by Scatec.

Nigeria: Starsight Energy announces record performance in 2020 (Guardian Nigeria)
- Over the course of 2020, the leading C&I solar provider added 280 sites and achieved 36MW of generating capacity, 28MWh of battery storage and 13,890 HP of cooling capacity—an impressive 110% growth across all systems.

Togo: GIZ funding enables the construction of a mini solar power plant (Afrik21)
- The Togolese Agency for Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy (AT2ER), will now power its offices by a 33kWp rooftop solar system. The GIZ provided EUR66k to construct the facility.

East Africa

Ethiopia: World Bank approves USD500 million loan to accelerate electrification (Afrik21)
- The funds will be allocated by the IDA and will be used to extend and strengthen the national grid in major cities throughout the country, while an off-grid strategy will be pursued in rural areas.

Ethiopia: First drilling of the Tulu Moye Geothermal project completed (ESI)
- Ethiopian Electric Power reported in late March that drilling of the first well has been completed. This first phase will commission 50MW by 2023, while the second phase will add a further 100MW.

Kenya: Government signs Memorandum of Arrangement with New Zealand to boost geothermal sector (Energy Mix Report)
- The Geothermal Development Company is set to benefit from a USD692k expansion in the New Zealand-Africa Geothermal Facility.

Southern Africa

Mozambique: Belgian development agency, Enabel, launches tender for the construction of five hybrid solar mini-grids (Afrik21)
- The projects will be developed in the Nampula and Zambezia provinces and will have installed capacities ranging from 75-230kWp. Interested parties have until May 4 2021 to apply.

South Africa: More than 28GW of flexible energy assets required for least-cost 100% renewables (Engineering News)
- Wartsila Energy report that 21GW of storage capacity and 6.8GW of flexible gas power capacity is needed to completely decarbonise the grid.

Africa - general

General: Baobab+ raises EUR4 million to distribute solar kits in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal (Afrik21)
- Having just completed two rounds of financing, which involved several energy access funds, the French company will now expand its operations in these countries.

General: Kinshasa hosts final negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over dam on Nile (Energy Mix Report)
- These new discussions, involving mediators from the AU, EU, UN and US, are considered by the Egyptians to be “the last chance”.

Rest of World

General: Renewable energy capacity increases in 2020 (ESI)
- Despite the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,more than 260GW of renewable energy capacity was added in 2020, a 50% increase on the previous record.

Solar/Hydrogen: Solar PV is driving green hydrogen cost reductions (PV-Magazine)
- BloombergNEF has forecasted that by 2050 costs will fall by 85%, undercutting natural gas and blue and gray hydrogen alternatives.

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