The organisers of Africa’s Green Economy Summit, taking place in Cape Town from 22–24 February, have announced that global mobility giant Uber and car manufacturer Nissan will be official partners of the event. In addition, several more very prominent speakers have been confirmed for the packed two-day investment gathering.

Africa’s Green Economy Summit will bring together investors, developers and governments, highlighting investment prospects that exist in the fields of green hydrogen, EVs and hybrid vehicles, energy storage, solar, hydro and wind energy, infrastructure development, urban sustainability as well as manufacturing. It is part of the E-Fest Cape Town that will culminate in the Formula E 2023 Cape Town E-Prix race in the same week on 25 February 2023.

“There are huge opportunities for Africa to take advantage of business and technology innovation to drive green growth opportunities on the continent that will give both good climate outcomes but increase incomes and growth on the continent. This will require public policymakers, private entrepreneurs, investors and the financial sector to work together in a coordinated way to deliver on these opportunities.”

So says John Roome, the World Bank’s South Asia Regional Director of Sustainable Development, and moderator of the session on “Accelerating Green Investment in Africa” at the summit.

Setting the scene for the discussions, the World Bank’s John Roome explains that “Africa doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are four examples that I will talk about from India that give good examples of how India has been able to drive down the price of LED light bulbs and create a new business opportunity in street lighting, how they’ve been able to drive growth in e-buses across the country, how they’ve expanded rooftop solar and how they have expanded renewables through renewable energy solar energy farms, using a combination of public policy, private investment and financial sector innovation.”

The full interview with John Roome and other experts can be viewed on the event website: https://www.greeneconomysummit.com/event-news and on YouTube.

Uber and African Union Commissioner among new speakers

Several more very prominent speakers have been confirmed for the packed two-day summit programme. They include:

• Kagiso Khaole, General Manager, Southern Africa, Uber, South Africa – Keynote address in the session on “Mobility for Social Inclusion and Economic Opportunity”.
• H.E. Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, African Union Commission, Ethiopia – Opening session keynote speaker: “De-risking investments, so lenders and investors can support Africa’s net zero transition – the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB)”.
• Nangula Uaandja, President, Namibian Investment Promotions Development Board, Namibia – Expert panellist in discussion on “Accelerating Green Investment in Africa”.
• Dr Amany Asfour, President, Africa Business Council, Egypt – Day 2 keynote speaker: “Driving pan-African results by bringing together private sector and policy-makers to support extra and intra-African trade, investment and pan-African enterprise”.
• Mandy Rambharos, Vice-President: Global Climate Cooperation, Environmental Defence Fund, United States (former head of Climate Just Transition at Eskom) – Expert panellist in discussion on “Accelerating Green Investment in Africa”.
• Prof Henry Tse, Director of New Mobility Technologies, Catapult Connected Places, UK – Panellist in innovation discussion in session on “Mobility for Social Inclusion and Economic Opportunity”.
• Michelle McLean-Bailey, Tourism and Investment Consultant, Namibian Investment Promotions Development Board & Chairperson Brand Ambassador Programme, Board of Brand Namibia in the President’s Office, (former Miss Universe 1992 from Namibia), Ohltaver & List International Business Representative, Namibia & USA – Master of ceremonies on Day 2.

Click here to see the full programme and complete list of speakers confirmed to date: https://www.greeneconomysummit.com/programme

Hydrogen key to driving net zero

An important theme of the summit is the continent’s commitment to key strategies for investment-ready green infrastructure projects and hydrogen is receiving a lot of attention as a key component of driving net zero.

“We tend to think that possibly a route to consider is going smaller to begin with in terms of the size of pilots, proving out pilots on a smaller scale, which we think would then catalyse more finance into the projects themselves in terms of bridging the finance gap, but, ultimately we think the finance will come,” says Mardé van Wyk, venture partner at Advanced Pioneer Ventures, a company in the UK that invests in hydrogen technology. At the upcoming Africa’s Green Economy Summit, she is part of the expert panel discussion in the session on “Developing a hydrogen economy”.

She continues: “We think the opportunity is there and that it’s a matter of all the players in the finance ecosystem coming together and ensuring that, as the research shows, we capitalise on this opportunity where hydrogen is a key component of driving net zero. And to the extent that that is part of their strategy as a financial institution, they have to be playing their role and in terms of enabling hydrogen as part of that solution.“

E-Fest Cape Town

Already home to a thriving green economy, the City of Cape Town is looking forward to welcoming the summit delegates to assist in creating opportunities to invest in this innovative space. The E-Fest in February 2023 offers a week of special events and entertainment to showcase sustainability, e-mobility and renewable energy solutions, underpinned by the international ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Also known as the Cape Town E-Prix, it is the first Formula E race to be hosted in sub-Saharan Africa, and the first major open-wheel race since 1993. For the first time, South Africa will be able to witness Formula E’s thrilling line-up in person, as drivers race their electric-powered cars through the streets of Cape Town.

“GO GREEN AFRICA” is the E-Fest call to action to businesses and individuals to level up by pledging a commitment to going green.

Summit partners

ABB, Nissan and Uber are gold sponsors for the summit while the African Development Fund is a gold sponsor and development partner. Norfund and Actis are investor partners while Frost & Sullivan and Bruwer Capital are supporting partners. The City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government and Wesgro are also official event partners.

E-Fest Cape Town event dates: Africa’s Green Economy Summit 22–24 February 2023 Venue: Century City Conference Centre (4-star green star-rated for sustainable venue), Cape Town

Website: www.greeneconomysummit.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvhl1gAhC40NUC0P10xeUng

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/africas-green-economy-summit/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenEcoSummit

evrt Africa (Electric Vehicle Road Trip Africa): 15–24 February 2023 Website: https://smartermobility-africa.com/evrt-africa/

Cape Town E-Prix: 25 February 2023 Venue: Green Point Website: www.capetowneprix.com

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The Federal Republic of Nigeria is the most populous country and largest economy on the African continent. It is home to one of the fastest-growing populations globally, which has led to a rapidly increasing demand for energy that will be key to unlocking further economic development.

This presents a substantial opportunity to develop the rich natural renewable energy resources of the country and unlock low-carbon growth, IRENA said in its report Renewable Energy Roadmap: Nigeria.

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This report, developed in collaboration with the Energy Commission of Nigeria, analyzes the additional renewable energy deployment potential up to 2050, with an additional 2030 focus to aid shorter-term policy development.

The study encompasses all key sectors of the Nigerian energy system to provide additional context for energy policy discussions on how increased ambition in terms of renewable energy, beyond current government policy and targets, can be realized.

Nigeria is endowed with abundant renewable energy resources – namely solar, wind, hydro and biomass — that can be harnessed to scale up its energy supply and achieve universal energy access, energy security and reduced greenhouse gas emissions for climate change mitigation.

With regard to hydroelectricity specifically, in 2015, Nigeria had about 1.9GW installed capacity of large hydro and about 60MW of small hydro.

According to the report, Nigeria has a hydro potential of around 24GW and a small hydro potential of about 3.5GW. This potential for the most part is yet to be exploited.

Hydropower will be key in balancing the centralized power system by offering flexibility to mitigate solar power variability, the report said.

The transforming energy scenario (TES) sees hydroelectric power reaching 13GW in 2030 and 15.5GW in 2050, compared with the planned energy scenario of 5.9GW in 2030 and 13GW in 2050.

Originally published on hydroreview.com

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San Francisco renewable energy technology company Zola Electric has hired former Google chief information officer Ben Fried as a senior advisor and board member.   

Previously, he spent 13 years at financial services company Morgan Stanley where he designed and built the firm’s e-commerce and intranet architecture and infrastructure.

Founded in 2011, Zola provides solar and storage solutions to communities with little or no access to electricity.

The company started by providing solar home solutions to off-grid rural communities in Tanzania.

Read our latest Africa energy news

Zola chief executive Bill Lenihan said Fried’s “technological achievements are significant – from overseeing the creation and launch of Google Meet, to deploying one of the first and largest zero-trust network architectures, BeyondCorp”.

“His exceptional skills and experience in bringing enterprise technology solutions to market, digital transformation, and building and leading highly innovative technology organizations will be hugely valuable to Zola and for our mission.

He added that ZOLA “aims to fill the ‘white space’ in the energy access industry landscape, by the development of our Enterprise energy technology platform, which is purpose-built to bring reliable, affordable and clean power to three billion people and hundreds of millions of schools, clinics, farms and business that lack it”.

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Fried said he was “particularly impressed by the sophisticated architecture of ZOLA’s unique energy technology platform and the innovative technology solutions it is deploying to drive away energy inequality across the globe”.

Fried’s appointment follows Zola’s launch of a distributed mini-grid in Rwanda, in partnership with META (formerly Facebook) and the Shell Foundation.

The breaking project powers over 1000 homes and businesses in two villages in rural Gakagati via a decentralised, modular and scalable energy and storage system.

Meanwhile, over on our sister site enlit.world: GridVerse – Enel Grids’ approach to the metaverse

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The agreements were signed under the umbrella of the Etihad 7 initiative, a UAE-led initiative that aims to raise public and private-sector funds to invest in the development of Africa’s renewable energy sector.

The deals cover 2GW in Angola, 1GW in Uganda and 2GW in Zambia, involving solar, wind and hydropower.

“The UAE and African nations share a firm belief in the tremendous potential that clean energy offers Africa to unlock economic and climate action progress,” said UAE’s minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Sheikh Shakhboot Nahyan Al Nahyan.

Masdar chairman Dr Sultan Al Jaber, who is also President Designate of COP28, which will be held in the Emirates later this year,said: “The UAE is committed to advancing sustainable development in the Global South – and especially in our brotherly nations in Africa.”

Read the latest Africa energy news here

He added that the “landmark agreements will be transformative to local communities and will help African nations to drive economic growth for their people while still meeting net-zero objectives”.

Uganda’s energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu said the 1GW planned for the country would “go a long way to contributing to the attainment of our universal access goals and our energy transition goals”.

Last August, Masdar also signed an agreement with TANESCO, the sole provider of electricity in Tanzania, to develop renewable energy projects with a total capacity of up to 2GW, also under the umbrella of the Etihad 7 program.

The two parties are in the process of finalizing the establishment of a joint venture company to advance the collaboration.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), less than half of the Sub-Saharan African population has access to electricity.

Africa also generates just 20& of its electricity from renewable sources, while according to a report by Masdar and McKinsey, the continent has a theoretical potential capacity of approximately 850TW of solar and wind.

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The 50MW solar PV project with an investment of around $60 million will be located at the city of Bondoukou in the northeastern region of Gontougo, about 420 km northeast of Abidjan.

The project is being developed under a Build-Own-Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model and should generate more than 85GWh of clean energy per year, enough to power around 350,000 people.

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The offtaker for the project will be Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité, which is responsible for the electrical network throughout the country.

Hussain Al Nowais, chairman of AMEA Power, said that the company is proud to be supporting Ivory Coast meet its clean energy ambitions and that the region has a great amount of untapped potential for renewable energy and green hydrogen.

“The country is undergoing an economic and social transition, which will be driven by the development of clean energy and is reflective of the broader continent.”

The Bondoukou project, on which a concession agreement and 25-year PPA was signed with the Ivory Coast government, is AMEA Power’s first in the country.

Other solar, wind and green hydrogen projects are in various stages of development in Burkina Faso, Mali, Morocco and Togo, with the extension of the Mohammed Bin Zayed solar plant from 50MW to 70MW and addition of battery storage in the latter country set to make it the largest solar generator in West Africa.

The Ivory Coast government has targeted raising the share of renewable energy in the country’s electricity generation mix to 42% by 2030.

In 2020 the share was 32%, all hydropower, IRENA data indicates.

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Managing director and CEO Abraham Serem said the company revamped its corporate strategy and rolled out a 10-year strategy that seeks to add 3,000MW. He further added that the company will be seeking to rehabilitate its existing power plants to make them more efficient for sustainable generation.

This new campaign will be driven largely by deploying up to 2,000MW from geothermal and hydroelectric sources as baseload power to stabilize the country’s energy sources and diversify away from expensive thermal sources. At the same time, KenGen said it has put in place plans to optimize the existing hydro sources as it pushes for the development of new hydropower stations and the expansion of existing ones, particularly within the Tana River basin. Serem said KenGen would be looking to tap into the vast potential of geothermal energy in the Rift Valley region, which is estimated to be about 10,000MW of clean and renewable energy.

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“So far we have only exploited about 0.9GW of the 10GW geothermal potential and that is why a huge chunk of the additional capacity will be drawn from geothermal,” said Serem. “Our focus going forward is to secure the baseload capacity to stabilize Kenya’s energy supply mainly from green renewable energy.”

He singled out the upcoming 305MW geothermal projects, with 280MW coming from Olkaria and 25MW from the Eburru geothermal power plant, for which he said construction would commence immediately after getting the requisite approvals. In addition, the company plans to leverage new technology to rehabilitate its oldest geothermal power plant, 45MW Olkaria I, to give it a new life and increase its generation capacity to more than 60MW.

Originally published on hydroreview.com

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The project is part of Togo’s National Development Plan aimed at providing universal access to electricity by 2030. The expansion will make this the largest solar PV plant in West Africa, according to AMEA Power.

Located in the village of Blitta, the project will power more than 222,000 households and will include a 4WMh Battery Energy Storage System to extend the availability of clean energy to the electricity network at night.

Under the terms of the financing agreement that was signed this week, the Abu Dhabi Exports Office (ADEX), which was established by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), will provide the Togolese Ministry of Economy and Finance with a loan of US$25 million to finance the complex’s expansion and battery storage addition.

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The project will be constructed by AMEA Technical Services, a subsidiary of AMEA Power. ADEX also participated in the financing of the construction of the project’s second phase, with an envelope of US$10 million of debt.

Hussain Al Nowais, Chairman of AMEA Power, said: “This project would not be possible without the support of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, Abu Dhabi Exports Office, and the Togolese government. Through their support, AMEA Power is able to become a global champion for the UAE and further demonstrate the country’s commitment to the global energy transition.

“As the host of the next Conference of Parties (COP), the UAE is playing a critical role in supporting the world and in particular, emerging countries with mitigating the impact of climate change and increasing the adoption of clean energy.”

Phases 1 and 2 of the project were fully developed by AMEA Power during the Covid-19 pandemic and took less than 18 months to complete from their initial inception. Both project phases became fully operational in June 2021, with AMEA Technical Services currently responsible for the operations and maintenance of the solar plant.

AMEA Power is rapidly scaling up its investments in wind, solar, energy storage and green hydrogen, with a clean energy pipeline of nearly 6GW across 15 countries.

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This solar PV plant will be the second one linked to the Bir Rebaa North (BRN) oil field facility aimed at decarbonising the facility’s hydrocarbon production. It will be added to the existing 10MW solar PV plant launched in 2018.

The goal of the Solar Lab is to test different solar PV panels in extreme irradiation conditions and analyse the data to identify the most efficient technologies. The Lab will be open to universities for research purposes, ultimately promoting the development of renewables in Algeria.

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Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said in a statement: “Decarbonising our legacy businesses is a pillar of Eni’s net-zero strategy, and today we celebrate the strong alignment between Eni and Sonatrach towards carbon neutrality. Our shared vision is also the basis of the joint effort to ensure security of supply for Italy and Europe, leveraging Algerian gas resources. Algeria and Italy have been trusted partners for decades and will continue to work together towards a just, sustainable and pragmatic energy transition.”

These initiatives are in line with Eni’s wider decarbonisation plan that also includes venting monitoring and zero routine flaring projects, energy efficiency and green hydrogen initiatives. The company aims to add another solar PV facility at the Menzel Ledjmet East Project production complex, also in the Berkine Basin, with construction expected to begin in 2023.

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According to the International Trade Association, Algeria has the tenth-largest proven natural gas reserves globally and has the world’s third-largest untapped shale gas resources.

It also ranks sixteenth in proven oil reserves and exports roughly 60% of its total production (600,000 barrels per day). According to Algeria’s national oil company, Sonatrach, about two-thirds of the Algerian territory remains underdeveloped or unexplored, with an estimated 100 undeveloped discoveries.

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The partnership was announced at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh and is considered an important building block in an EU-Mediterranean Renewable Hydrogen Partnership.

The MoU will provide the infrastructure and financing frameworks to support the development of a renewable hydrogen industry and trade across the EU and Egypt. Furthermore, the partnership will help the EU reach its RePowerEU goal of 20 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen consumption in 2030, reducing reliance on Russian gas.

Finally, the agreement aims to establish a global rules-based market for hydrogen solutions and global safety and environmental standards.

The agreement was signed by European Commission executive vice-president Frans Timmermans and commissioner Kadri Simson, Egypt’s minister for petroleum Tarek El Molla and minister for electricity and renewable energy Mohammed Shaker El-Markabi.

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Frans Timmermans said in a statement: “This first-of-its-kind agreement on renewable hydrogen with Egypt shows that the EU is leading the work on establishing a framework for a global hydrogen economy. Together with reliable energy partners, like Egypt, we will establish a secure and competitive renewable hydrogen supply chain. We also need to make sure our partners are well equipped to grasp the opportunities inherent in the green transition, while ensuring a fair transition to their citizens. This is why our contribution to Egypt’s Energy Wealth Initiative, coming in the middle of COP27, is so important.”

The representatives also signed a Joint Statement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Egyptian minister of international cooperation, Rania El Mashat, announcing the Commission’s contribution of up to €35 million ($36.2 million) in support of Egypt’s Energy Wealth Initiative.

The Energy Wealth Initiative was launched by the Egyptian government and the EBRD to implement the energy pillar of the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy Initiative designed to accelerate implementation of the country’s new climate change strategy for 2050 launched in May 2022.

The initiative aims to shut down 5,000MW of gas-based power generation capacity and facilitate investments to support the installation of 10,000MW of new renewable energy capacity.

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The mixed fuel demonstrations ran throughout COP27 and represents the first time GE’s LM6000 gas turbine was run on a hydrogen fuel blend on the African continent.

The project resulted from a cooperation agreement between Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC), GE, Hassan Allam Construction, and Egyptian EPC company PGESCO and forms part of the country’s emergency supply power programme.

EEHC owns and operates the Sharm El Sheikh plant. GE led the conception, planning, and execution of the project, as well as the building of the hydrogen-natural gas blending system.

Hassan Allam supplied the manpower and equipment needed for installation, related civil works, hydrogen needed for testing, and the piping and cabling system that transported hydrogen to the mixing skid and the turbine. PGESCO helped design the project and provided engineering expertise.

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Joseph Anis, president and CEO of GE Gas Power in EMEA, said in a statement: “We were honored to design the overall hydrogen-natural gas demonstration project at Sharm El Sheikh. This is an excellent example of what it means to be together for implementation.”

The project illustrates that while hydrogen does present certain challenges with transportation, storage, and use at site for power generation, those obstacles can be overcome with the right arrangements, training, and precautions.

Also, according to GE, the successful adaptation of an existing installed unit to run on hydrogen-blended fuel also highlights that today’s gas power generation assets can be a destination technology, not just a bridging technology, as the world scales up the production of hydrogen.

This is important for countries that have made considerable investments of billions of dollars in these assets.

Ahmed Ramadan, chief executive of PGESCO said the project was “a milestone in Africa and the region, illuminating how we can use hydrogen-blended fuels for future energy production”.

The LM6000 gas turbine operates in the +40MW space on a wide variety of fuels including natural gas, LPG (propane and butane), isopentane, ethanol, diesel, and coke oven gas.

With around five minutes to ramp up from start-up to full power, the turbine provides a faster frequency control response, according to GE.

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