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Friday, 9 July

Dear <<First Name>>

This week I had the pleasure of reading ESI Africa’s interview with Jessica Stephens, who was appointed the new CEO of the Africa Minigrid Developers Association (AMDA) earlier this year. In it, Jessica speaks of how the challenge of how to “electrify the most people with the best quality service at the lowest price for all” is what keeps her motivated. She goes on to talk of the need for centralised and decentralised utilities to work collaboratively, how we must move beyond the entrenched interests of existing utilities, and of her wish for national governments to appropriately subsidise their own energy infrastructure.

I find it so encouraging to hear such sensible thinking spoken with so much lucidity and passion, and speaking to colleagues who have direct experience of working with Jessica, it is clear she is a very capable person who walks the talk. It is also refreshing to see a woman take the reins of such an important institution as AMDA, given how woefully underrepresented women are in the world's energy sector.

In recent years, solar PV mini-grids have proven to be one of the fastest and cheapest ways to provide reliable, stable, power to off-grid communities, and a growing proportion of REPP’s investments are finding their way into the sector. Over the last year REPP has been working very closely with AMDA and other partners to inform and influence the development of a conducive enabling environment for mini-grids in Nigeria and Kenya, and we will be looking forward to telling you more about this work over the coming months.

Cheers

Geoff Sinclair

Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy

Camco news

EVENT: Camco MD Geoff Sinclair will be the guest speaker at Pacific Trade Invest NZ's investment webinar on finding and realising renewable energy opportunities in the Pacific Islands on 21 July. Click here for details and to register.

 
Story of the week

The 100MW Kipeto wind farm has achieved commercial operations. The USD344 million project will have 60 turbines supplying power to the national grid. It is the third wind farm in Kenya and has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the state-owned Kenya Power Company (KPLC).

West Africa

Gabon: Financing of the 35MW Kinguélé Aval dam reaches completion (Further Africa)
- The USD179 million project will be financed by the investment company Meridiam and its partner Gabon Power Company, in addition to support from the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation. 

Senegal: GreenYellow to install 1.56MWp solar plant (Afrik21)
- The facility will be used to power the operations of Senico, a company that specialises in the production and marketing of agri-food products.

Togo: Tender issued for 390MW/200 MWh solar plus storage plant (PV-Magazine)
- ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms will finance the project. Interested parties have until 20th July to register their interest.

East Africa

Ethiopia: The next phase of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam begins (France24)
- The government's decision to proceed with filling the mega-dam is angering Egypt and Sudan as an agreement between the countries remains elusive.

Kenya: InfraCo Africa and RVE.SOL agree to rural electrification partnership (Afrik21)
- With USD8 million of funding, the companies aim to build 22 solar mini-grids in Busia county.

Kenya: 100MW Kipeto Wind Farm starts commercial operations (Afrik21)
- The facility, which was constructed by BTE Renewables, is the second largest wind farm in the country.

Tanzania: EU to finance solar pumps and lanterns (PV-Magazine)
- The EU development institution, EDFI Electrfi, has purchased EUR1.26 million in convertible bonds issued by Simusolar, a domestic solar products supplier.

Southern Africa

Botswana: Government approves the country’s first large-scale solar plant (Energy Mix Report)
- Shumba Energy has received a license to generate 100MW of power, which will feed into the South African power pool.

Zambia: Ultra Green to begin construction on 200MW Serenje solar power plant (Afrik21)
- Work on the facility is expected to begin in September 2021, once a PPA has been signed.

Zimbabwe: Seven new solar plants to be connected to the grid (Renew Africa)
- The projects have a combined capacity of 66.6MW and will help the country’s target to have renewable energy (excluding hydro power) constitute 26.5% of its total generation capacity by 2030.

Africa - general

General: Daystar Power announces the closing of a USD20 million facility from the IFC for Nigerian expansion (Energy Mix Report)
- The International Finance Corporation will provide the loan to Daystar’s Nigerian subsidiary which will be composed of a subordinated and local currency loan.

General: Green Climate Fund contributes USD170 million to African energy access programme (Engineering News)
- The funding will support the AfDB’s Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework (LEAF) programme, which aims to unlock commercial and local-currency financing for decentralised renewable energy in several countries.

Solar: A wave of new solar projects have been announced (PV-Magazine)
- The Africa Solar Industry Association has recorded almost 2GW of large-scale project announcements since the start of last month.

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