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  • MENA PV additions quadrupled in 2018
    • As anticipated, 2018 was a pivotal year for PV installations in Middle East and North Africa, writes Josefin Berg, Research and Analysis Manager at IHS Markit. PV Magazine's end-of-year estimates show that approximately 3.6 GW of PV systems were installed in the region in 2018, compared to less than 1 GW in 2017.

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    Jan 17 2019

  • $1.5m grant to assist Ghana’s renewable energy investment drive
    • The African Development Bank has approved a $1.5 million grant from its Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), to assist Ghana’s renewable energy investment drive. The bank stated that this grant will support the government’s efforts to overcome technical, financial, regulatory and institutional barriers to scaling-up renewable energy investments in the country. The project, which is part of the Bank-led Climate Investment Fund (CIF) and the Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) Investment Plan for Ghana, will complement the bank’s effort in the Ghana Energy Development and Access Programme (GEDAP). The SEFA grant will fund broad components: the technical/commercial/regulatory and feasibility studies, aimed at providing detailed renewable energy resource studies, grid integration studies and regulatory texts, and resources and public sector skills and capacity development.

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    Sep 25 2018

  • GTM: Middle East and Africa set for 170% growth in solar demand
    • The Middle East and Africa is set to enjoy a year-on-year PV demand increase of 170%, according to GTM Research. In its latest regional breakout, deployment is expected to land at 3.6GW this year spiking to 20GW in 2020. Cumulatively the region will install 83.7GW in the period 2018-2023. According to the report’s author, Ben Attia, there are currently 12.3GW of utility-scale solar contracted or under construction and a further 21GW in the pre-contract phase. Major utility-scale tender programmes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE have boosted numbers and Attia expects Africa to contribute more than 6.4GW from 2020 onwards. Saudi and the UAE are expected to account for half of all the additional solar capacity installed out to 2023.

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    Aug 17 2018

  • World Bank exceeds climate finance target with record year
    • On Thursday, the World Bank revealed that in fiscal year 2018, 32.1% of its financing had climate co-benefits – already exceeding the target set in 2015 that 28% of its lending volume would be climate-related by 2020. “We have not just exceeded our climate targets on paper, we have transformed the way we work with countries and are seeing major transitions to renewable energy, clean and resilient transport systems, climate-smart agriculture and sustainable cities,” said World Bank CEO, Kristalina Georgieva. This amounted to a record-setting $20.5 billion in climate-related finance delivered in the last fiscal year, the result of an institution-wide effort to mainstream climate considerations into all development projects.

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    Jul 20 2018

  • AfDB supporting Zambian small-scale renewables
    • The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US$50 million loan for small-scale renewable energy projects in Zambia, after recent droughts caused a serious electricity supply deficit due to the country’s heavy reliance on hydropower. This comes on top of the US$52.5 million in financing approved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in February as part of a financing framework. Zambia’s Government launched the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff (REFiT) policy in 2017 to support private investments for small-scale <20MW renewable projects, driven by the hydropower deficit. The ‘Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs’ (GETFiT) Zambia Programme was then brought in to facilitate the implementation of the REFiT Policy aiming to finance 200MW of renewable energy projects. The GETFiT programme will be co-financed by the GCF and AfDB along with other yet to be determined co-financers.

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    Jul 12 2018

  • Falling battery costs to enable wind and solar generation to hit 50% globally by 2050
    • Wind and solar could provide half of the world’s energy generation by 2050 on the back of continually declining technology costs, particularly in battery energy storage, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The 150-page New Energy Outlook (NEO) 2018 report predicts that the future of the global electricity system will be dominated by tumbling lithium-ion battery prices. These have already fallen 80% per MWh since 2010 and will continue to decline as electric vehicle manufacturing builds up through the 2020s.

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    Jun 19 2018

  • Global funds back desert solar to bring power to 250 million Africans
    • The Desert to Power collaboration between the African Development Bank (ADB), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Africa50 investment fund aims to build 10,000 MW of solar projects across the dry, sunny region. That would be enough to bring solar-generated electricity to 250 million people, including 90 million through off-grid solutions, which the organisations claim will enable the development of agriculture. Just 42% of people have access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Green Climate Fund executive director Howard Bamsey said the needs expressed by countries in the region were driving the initiative. “Sahel countries have identified the potential of solar power to bring green energy to people across the region,” said Bamsey. “Renewable energy investment is a priority in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.” The organisations agreed to share ideas and resources to make solar power available throughout the Sahel region, with the aim of transforming African deserts into new sources of renewable energy.

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    May 31 2018

  • Renewable Energy Needs To Scale Up By A Factor Of Six, Reports IRENA
    • The speed of global renewable energy adoption needs to increase by at least a factor of six if the world is to meet the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, but which would also result in the growth of the global economy and global welfare, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency. The new report published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050, was launched at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue being held on Tuesday and Wednesday at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. According to the report, cumulative energy system investment would need to be increased by 30% through to 2050 in favor of supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency — from around $93 trillion under current and planned policies, up to $120 trillion. This investment figure also requires $18 trillion be directed towards power grids and energy flexibility — double that of current and planned policies.

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    Apr 18 2018

  • Zambia issues RfQ for 100MW of solar under GET FiT programme
    • The government of Zambia has issued a Request for Qualification (RfQ) for up to 100MW of solar under the first round of the GET FiT Zambia programme. German development bank KfW, which is representing the Zambian government, is implementing the tender on behalf of the Ministry of Energy. The capacity will become available via a reverse bid, competitive auction process. The maximum project size will be 20MW and each applicant can apply for up to two projects. A maximum of 20 projects and bidders will be shortlisted and invited to submit full technical and financial Bids during a Request for Proposal (RfP) stage. In December 2017, GET FiT Zambia became the official implementation programme for the Zambian Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFiT) Strategy, which was formally launched by the Ministry of Energy in October 2017.

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    Apr 10 2018

  • Lebanese solar-plus-storage tender could enable private supply of renewables
    • Lebanon could reconfigure its laws and regulations to allow private sector actors to generate renewable energy for sale to the grid, it emerged as the Middle Eastern country opened up its first solar-plus-storage tender process. The Government of Lebanon is seeking to enter power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy supply and has called on “private investors and companies interested” to submit expressions of interest (EOI) to deliver multi-megawatt solar PV projects with co-located energy storage. PPAs will be bought by Electricité du Liban (EDL), Lebanon’s main electricity supplier, on behalf of the Lebanese Republic Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW). It was made clear the government wants to buy up the electricity supply, not to own the assets themselves.

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    Apr 10 2018