Friday, 9 October

Dear <<First Name>>

The need for a reliable power system has been essential for economic and social prosperity ever since the Industrial Revolution. And today the need to transition rapidly to a clean and sustainable power system is essential not just for economic and social prosperity, but for the future of the planet. 

Unfortunately for many South Africans, frequent load-shedding persists as a result of ageing thermal plants, and the prospect of the country re-establishing a reliable national power system any time soon is highly unlikely.

But on a much more positive note, recent regulatory changes have allowed industries in the country to look at self-generation options to satisfy their energy needs. Latest to take advantage of the improving regulations is Marula Platinum Mine, which is giving developers until 20 October to submit bids for 10MW of solar capacity. This is a fascinating development in South Africa’s ongoing energy saga, and I am excited to see how it unfolds.

Cheers

Geoff

Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy

West Africa

Burkina Faso: 6,000 households to be connected to Sonabel network (Afrik21)
- Connections will be in the city of Koudougou with total project costs expected to be EUR250,000. 

Guinea: Solar projects totalling 82MW reach financial close (PV-Magazine)
- All the projects will be built by Clean Power Generation with power being sold on to the national utility.

East Africa

Ethiopia: Government says GERD will start producing power in the next 12 months (Engineering News)
- Construction and the filling of the reservoir continue despite rising tensions.

Southern Africa

Mozambique: Government launches tender for three PV plants totalling 120MW (Afrik21)
- The EU and AFD have contributed EUR37 million to assist with the implementation of the projects.

South Africa: Platinum mine launches tender for 10MW of solar (PV-Magazine)
- Eskom's poor reliability and recent regulatory changes have prompted the mine’s owners to launch the tender.

Africa - general

General: FMO provides US$5 million in funding to Husk Power Systems (Afrik21)
- The mini-grid supplier will use the additional funding to expand operations in rural parts of Africa.

General: Easy Solar raises US$5 million to distribute its solar systems (Afrik21)
- These funds will primarily accelerate the distribution of systems around Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Wind: IFC study shows Africa has huge onshore wind potential (ESI)
- It is estimated that the continent has the potential to produce 59,000GW of wind energy.

Rest of World

General: Researchers conclude that nuclear is not an effective low carbon option (PV-Magazine)
- 25 years of electricity data from 123 countries shows renewables are considerably more effective than nuclear.

Currencies