Country: Zambia

Zambia and the United Arab Emirates have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week towards the development of 2 GW of solar energy in the Southern African state. The MoU provides for the establishment of a joint-venture between the UAE’s state-owned entity Masdar and Zambia’s state-utility ZESCO. The project seeks to diversify Zambia’s energy mix after repeated droughts have severely curtailed the country’s production of hydropower. The new joint-venture will target the installation of 2 GW of solar PV power, starting with an initial phase of 500 MW. The Government of Zambia has been committed to solar energy for several years and joined the International Finance Corporation’s Scaling Solar Initiative in 2015. The competitive auction has already resulted in the commissioning of two solar PV plants in 2019: Enel Green Power’s 34 MW Ngonya facility and Neoen’s 54.3 MW Bangweulu facility.

First Quantum Minerals (FQM), the company that notably operates Africa’s biggest copper mine by production in Zambia, has entered into a new partnership with Chariot and Total Eren to develop 430 MW of solar and wind power for its mining operations in Zambia. Both Chariot and Total Eren had signed last year binding key terms of a long-term joint-development partnership to jointly originate and develop wind and solar projects for mining clients in Africa. Their project in Zambia with FQM would be unique in scale for Africa and help the global mining company to decarbonize its operations as it seeks to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% by 2025. Additional renewable energy capacity would notably support operations at FQM’s flagship Kansanshi copper-gold mine new Solwezi in Northern Zambia.  Since 2005, FQM has expanded its operations there and is now capable of producing 340,000 tonnes of copper and more than 120,000 ounces of gold per year.

Nigerian energy infrastructure conglomerate, Sahara Group, has announced an investment of $1bn into Africa’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) value chain during the African Refiners and Distribution Association (ARDA) conference 2021 in South Africa this week. “Sahara, through its subsidiary, WAGL Energy Limited is already working towards investing $1 billion to ramp up its LPG fleet and terminal infrastructure over the next five years. In addition to the vessel fleet, Sahara is in the process of building over 120,000 metric tonnes of LPG storage in eleven countries,” he said. In October 2020, Sahara and Côte d’Ivoire’s national oil company PETROCI notably broke ground on a new 12,000 MT LPG storage terminal on the outskirts of Abidjan. The company has also earmarked additional such projects in Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia while considering additional investment elsewhere on the continent.