Category: Alternative & Renewable Energy
Renewable energy’s inconvenient truth
By Gail Tverberg The energy needs of the world’s economy seem to be easy to model. Energy consumption is measured in a variety of different ways including kilowatt-hours, barrels of oil equivalent, British thermal units, kilocalories and joules. Two types of energy are equivalent if they produce the same number of units of energy, right?…
First WATT Renewables wins ‘Renewable Energy Forum 2019’ co-organised by the African Development Bank
The company, based in Canada, is a private sector clean-energy technology producer and supplier of sustainable energy solutions First WATT Renewables has emerged the winners of the 4th West African Forum for Climate and Clean Energy Financing (WAFCCEF) contest, held on Thursday 26 September in Abidjan and co-organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The…
Balancing electricity security with the rise of renewables
As the contributions of solar PV and wind power to electricity systems keep growing around the world, governments and industry are challenged to address the critical work of integrating these variable renewables into their electrical grids. This is essential to make sure that countries can benefit from higher shares of renewable power while ensuring grid…
Africa needs to modernise and decentralise its grid to solve its power distribution problems
By Anastasia WALSH Grid modernisation, specifically the deployment of microgrids in rural areas, provides a promising strategy Electrification is an on-going and foundational investment, and a necessary one to realize all modern-day development objectives. Despite bullish policies, the fact remains that over 640 million Africans lack access to electricity. The effect of this is apparent….
United Nations General Assembly 2019: No room for coal in Africa’s renewable future —Akinwumi Adesina
Adesina also talked about plans for $20 billion of investments in solar and clean energy that would provide the region’s 250 million people with 10,000 MW of electricity. African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Akinwumi Adesina on Tuesday, unveiled ambitious plans to scrap coal power stations across the continent and switch to renewable energy at United…
UK pledges $250m towards Global Energy Storage Programme
The UK pledged £200 million ($250 million) to the Climate Investment Funds’ Global Energy Storage Programme, which in collaboration with the World Bank’s Energy Storage Partnership aims to deliver breakthrough energy storage and renewable energy solutions at scale. France’s Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Netherlands pledged $100 million to the Solar Risk Mitigation…
New private equity fund to invest in sustainable energy in Nigeria
The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), has approved a $500,000 grant to support the development and launch of the Nigeria Energy Access Fund (NEAF). This new private equity fund has been developed by Nigerian impact investment firm, All On. NEAF will make strategic investments in sustainable energy…
Amazon makes largest ever electric vehicle purchase
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is betting big on startup Rivian Automotive by placing the largest-ever electric vehicle purchase order in automotive history. The Michigan-based startup will be building and delivering 100,000 electric vans to Amazon over the next decade. The first 10,000 will start hitting roads in 2021 and completing the delivery the next year, with all 100,000…
Nigeria inaugurates Africa’s largest off-grid solar hybrid power plant
By Oke Peter Nigerian government has inaugurated the largest off-grid solar hybrid power plant in Africa at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) in Kano State. The project was under undertaken by the Energising Education Programme of the Federal Government and is expected to provide constant electricity supply for about 55,815 students and 3,077 staff. Largest off-grid…
Mini-Grids are on the charge to electrify rural Africa —Aaron Leopold
This conclusion was met upon the realisation that Africa doesn’t necessarily have a generation problem; rather a transmission and distribution problem across and in between vast areas of land. Despite reaching this potential epiphany, however, governments at the time lacked templates, frameworks, and even – in some cases – an understanding of how to develop,…