The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp. has agreed to provide as much as $400 million in aid for a $700-million, 100-mw solar thermal power project in South Africa.
The first of the 4,764-MW Medupi coal-fired powerplant's six units commenced commercial operations in South Africa in September, almost six months after it was synchronized to the national grid and three years after it initially was set to be operational.
After a competition that drew interest from more than a dozen firms from around the world, a joint venture of Ugandan and South African firms has won a $79-million contract for a multibuilding complex of government facilities and commercial housing in Kampala, Uganda.
The World Bank estimates that only one-third of the population in sub Saharan Africa living in rural areas is “within two kilometers of an all-season road, compared with two-thirds of the population in other developing regions.
SolarReserve The 96-MW Jasper solar-energy project, near Kimberly, South Africa, came on line in October 2014. South Africa Photovoltaic Association Although Africa's rapid growth of residential solar installations is nourishing a nascent PV manufacturing base in Egypt, more mature offshore competitors from China and Canada (pictured) hold comfortably dominant market shares. Related Links: Google Invests In Solar Africa Sub-Saharan Africa's Energy Sector on Growth Trajectory in 2015 Despite Hiccups Egypt has prequalified 110 bidders for the construction of 2,000 MW of solar-photovoltaic and wind energy projects under the country’s first round of its new feed-in-tariff (FiT) program, launched in September
Related Links: Egypt Moves Forward on $6-Billion Petrochemical Project Dramatic Drop in Fuel Prices Starts to Ripple Through Costs Carbon Holdings, Egypt’s largest industrial developer and operator of downstream oil-and-gas projects, hopes to finalize funding for its $7.4-billion Tahrir Petrochemicals project by the end of the year. Key to the deal is a pledge by five financiers to back construction of the complex.Carbon Holdings CEO Basil El-Baz last year projected the greenfield project would reach financial closure by the fourth quarter and break ground in 2015, but delays in finalizing project financing have pushed back the schedule.El-Baz was quoted by
Image courtesy of Club of Mozambique Conceptual design of planned $8 billion to $10 billion Mozambique natural-gas-liquefaction facility. Related Links: First LNG Projects Under Way in Mozambique Africa Poised for LNG Boom Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and its partners hope to make a final decision by the end of 2015 on whether to proceed with a major onshore liquefied-natural-gas project in northern Mozambique.The project, valued at $8 billion to $10 billion, has taken a step forward with the May 18 construction contract award to a joint venture of Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. N.V., the Hague; Chiyoda Corp., Yokohama; and Saipem,
Egypt says it plans to build a new government and financial capital district near Cairo that could take $45 billion and more than seven years to construct.
Photo by Shem Oirere Kenya has launched a $2.8-billion, 10,000-km road-paving program, to be completed in 2017. Related Links: Rising Cement Demand in East Africa Draws European Manufacturers Sub-Saharan Africa's Energy Sector on Growth Trajectory in 2015 With many countries in Africa planning or implementing major highway building programs, demand for asphalt is expected to rise. That has prompted an increase in asphalt imports and a French asphalt company’s acquisition of a large West African company.Imported asphalt’s price is much lower than locally produced material, especially in Nigeria, where marketers are lobbying for punitive import taxes. The low price of