Seychelles to tender for 4MW of saltwater floating solar

4 April: The Republic of the Seychelles (RoS) plans to tender for the development of a 4MW floating grid-connected solar PV plant in the Lagoon le Rocher.

This will be the first utility-scale floating PV project in Africa and as well as one of the first salt-water floating solar PV plants in the world.

The tender will be implemented by the Seychelles Energy Commission (SEC), with the Public Utility Corporation (PUC) as the eventual off-taker of the project. The tender process is supported by African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), an organisation hosted by the African Development Bank and the Clinton Foundation. Trinity International and Multiconsult are serving as the transaction and tender advisors.

Karnataka signs PPAs for 640MW of solar

5 April: Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) has signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 640MW of solar, awarded under its 860MW auction in February.

The PPAs were signed with several distribution companies (Discoms), including. Hescom, Bescom, Mescom, Gescom and CESC.

The successful developers were: Acme, Asian Fab Tec, Ekialde, Greenko, Max Planck, Rays Power Infra, ReNew Solar Power, Shapoorji Pallonji, Talettutayi Solar and TEP Rooftop Solar.

BBOXX to tap UK impact investors to raise £2.5 million annually

9 April: BBOXX has partnered impact investment platform Lendahand Ethex to access flexible financing from UK investors, with a target of raising £2.5 million every year.

The Energise Africa partnership, which will raise the capital through a series of smaller investment offers, will allow BBOXX to extend its roll out of solar systems across Rwanda, Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

The first offer, launched on Monday, aims to enable BBOXX to raise low-cost inventory finance directly from Lendahand Ethex’s base of UK-based impact investors, in order to provide 2,500 rural Rwandan households solar systems.

BBOXX provides off-grid communities in Rwanda and other sub-Saharan African countries with smart, affordable and clean energy solutions. BBOXX customers typically pay around £3-5 per month on a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) basis. To date BBOXX has installed more than 150,000 systems and provided around 750,000 people with access to energy.