19 June 2013 - Alteria’s minister of energy and mines, Yousef Yousfi, says the country plans to build its first nuclear power station in 2025. The country has sufficient uranium reserves enough to run two nuclear power plants with a capacity of 1,000 MW each for 60 years, according to the minister. The country also recently established a nuclear engineering institute.

19 June 2013 - In May 2013, Ghana’s Bui hydroelectric project started generating electricity and added 133 MW to the country’s national grid. The expectation is that all three of the hydroelectric scheme’s turbines will be operational by the end of 2013, though work on the project’s infrastructure will continue into 2014. The 400 MW Bui scheme will be the second largest hydroelectric power station in Ghana, after the 1,020 MW Askombo power station which was built in the 1960s and upgraded in 2006.

19 June 2013 - The World Bank has contributed US$6 million for Djibouti to further its geothermal potential. The funds will support Djibouti in assessing the commercial viability of the geothermal resource in the Fiale Caldera area within the Lake Assal region.

"Djibouti is located in the active East African Rift tectonic region which has a high potential for geothermal, an inexpensive, clean, reliable and renewable way of producing electricity," Ilhem Salamon, World Bank project team leader, says. "Unlike wind or solar which are intermittent sources of energy, geothermal energy can be available at any moment. Developing this rich resource could allow Djibouti to function almost entirely on clean and affordable energy and foster private sector participation in the sector."

18 June 2013 - Eskom’s 2012 year-end presentation has been given an accolade by the Investment Analysts Society (IAS), which voted it as the “Best Presentation to the Society (market cap above R30bn)”. The award is based on more than 250 company presentations that were made to IAS members in the 2012/2013 reporting cycle.  

Aman Jeawon, the utility’s group financial controller says, “Eskom is a significant player in every aspect of the South African economy. We have a responsibility to share information in a transparent and meaningful way with all our stakeholders.” Eskom’s presentations have sought to provide analysts, investors and all stakeholders with a complete and honest account of Eskom’s challenges and plans, he says.

18 June 2013 - An agreement has been entered into between Eskom, employers and labour at the Medupi and Kusile project sites. The goal of this agreement is to stabilise labour relations on site and expedite delivery of the two new coal fired power stations totalling some 9.6 GW. This new agreement comes into effect after an extensive negotiation process over the past few weeks.

18 June 2013 - Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan has launched the estimated US$1 billion Zungeru hydroelectric project in the country’s Niger state. He says the Zungeru hydroelectric scheme was initially conceived in 1982, but due to funding constraints work on the project never began. However, he says that his administration had now solved the financial challenge by making funds available to build the dam on the River Kaduna.

14 June 2013 - NamPower says that results of a pre-feasibility study on the use of biomass for power generation in the country are promising and it has given the go-ahead to continue with a full-scale feasibility study while also investigating the feasibility of a hybrid biomass concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.

The Namibia Economist reports that the study by NamPower has been two years in the undertaking. It reports that when NamPower went to tender for the study in 2011, Robert Schultz from the Desert Research Foundation, an organisation that runs a 250 kW biomass power plant near Outjo, said there is capacity to run as many as 240 decentralised distribution-embedded biomass power plants across Namibia.

14 June 2013 - The Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) requested a 36.5% tariff increase for 2013, but the Swaziland Energy Regulator (SERA) awarded it only 9.3%. Subsequently the matter want to the country’s cabinet which reduced this tariff increase further to 5%, reports the Time of Swaziland.