The U.S. government is making significant progress on Power Africa‘s goal of adding more than 10 000 MW of efficient electricity generation capacity to Africa over the next five years.

U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Director Leocadia Zak highlighted the U.S. government’s progress on the Power Africa initiative during the opening session of the Africa Energy Forum, which connects African leaders with global energy industry representatives in order to develop power infrastructure on the continent.

“To date, the initiative has already helped bring to financial close energy projects that will produce 2 800 MW of new power, and has secured commitments for another 5 000 MW – representing a total of almost 75% of its initial goal,” said Zak.

Zak is leading a delegation of representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. African Development Foundation. The delegates highlighted successes from the first year of the Power Africa initiative during a roundtable on Accessing the U.S. Government’s Toolkit for Africa’s Power Sector.

USTDA’s participation at the Africa Energy Forum comes at the end of a month-long series of trips to western, eastern and southern Africa. During those visits, Zak signed grants for seven new energy activities in Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa. Several of these projects are being funded under the U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative, a U.S. government effort to catalyse private sector investment for clean energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting early-stage project development.

 

Renewable energy in SA

Earlier this month Zak signed grants for three renewable energy projects in South Africa.

Zak hosted a roundtable in Johannesburg for public and private sector stakeholders from the U.S. and South African solar power sectors. The event provided attendees the opportunity to share lessons learned from past efforts and to discuss both current challenges and future opportunities.

During the roundtable, Zak signed a grant agreement with Ample Solar for a project that will evaluate the use of Areva Solar’s innovative technology at two concentrated solar power plants that Ample Solar is planning to build in the Northern Cape.

Zak later signed a grant to Basil Read Energy to assist their efforts to develop a run-of-river hydropower plant that would supply electricity for more than 75 000 households. The project, which Basil Read plans to submit as part of its bid in an upcoming round of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program, will help diversify the country’s energy mix and reduce environmental emissions.

USTDA also finalised a grant agreement with Plessey, a leading South African telecommunications solutions provider, to fund a pilot project on U.S. fuel cell technology applications for use by the telecom industry in South Africa. The project will enable Oorja Protonics (Fremont, CA) to demonstrate the usage of methanol-powered fuel cells as the primary or secondary power supply at remote telecom tower sites that are currently powered by diesel fuel generators. The use of these cost-effective fuel cells, which are 40% more energy efficient than diesel generation, would significantly reduce carbon dioxide and other noxious emissions.

Each of these projects is being funded under the U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative.

“USTDA remains committed to fostering sustainable economic growth in South Africa,” said Zak. “These activities support South Africa’s goal of meeting energy demands by increasing generation capacity from renewable energy sources.”