14 June 2013 - Malawi has signed two electricity deals with China, one being a transmission line project and the other being for the construction of a thermal power station. The two together are worth an estimated US$667 million.

The transmission line project would see Chinese company TBEA construct additional power lines and upgrade existing transmission lines in Malawi. The generation project would see the China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) design and construct a thermal power station at Kammwamba in southern Malawi.

13 June 2013 - For the first time since Eskom began providing twice weekly updates on the state of its system, it indicates that peak electricity demand has exceeded available supply. This was according to Eskom’s update on the 13th of June, when it reported an expected peak demand of 35,364 MW for that evening versus an available supply capacity including open cycle gas turbines of 34,970 MW.

13 June 2013 - A US$74 million deal has been signed between Germany engineering company Voith and Societe Nationale d’Electricite (Snel) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the refurbishment of the 350 MW Inga 1 hydroelectric facility owned by the state utility.  

Voith will refurbish two 55 MW units at Inga I. Inga I is more than 40 years old and operates below its 350 MW of installed capacity, according to the World Bank, which is providing financing for the rehabilitation project.

13 June 2013 - Mozambique’s minister of energy, Salvador Namburete, says that 25% of the country’s population now has access to the grid while a further 13% has access to electricity in the form of solar photovoltaic panels. In this way, he claims a national electricity access level of 38% compared with 7% in 2004.

He says that to keep up with demand the country will have to supply an additional 100 MW a year domestically. Mozambique has an estimated 12,000 MW of hydroelectric potential, while it utilises some 2,300 MW of this. The bulk of that stems from the Cahora Bassa scheme, which exports most of its electricity to neighbouring countries.

13 June 2013 - The South African department of energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer (REIPPP) programme has a strong localisation element. By the date of the third REIPPP bid, submissions for solar electricity tenders in South Africa requires that 65% of the total costs attributed to such projects be local. This excludes finance charges and land mobilisation fees of the operations contractor and imported goods and services.

By Dr Peter Harrop, chairman, IDTechEx

12 June 2013 - Pure electric car sales in 2013 will be just 70,000 vehicles rising to two million in 2023, versus two million hybrid vehicles this year rising to 7.6 million in 2023. Of course, the big unit numbers come at the small end. Most of the unit volume in 2013 will be for two wheeled vehicles – 32 million vehicles in 2013 rising to 94 million in 2023, albeit at far lower average price points.

IDTechEx Research also finds that hybrid and pure electric cars will be almost half the total value of all electric vehicles in 2023. Although cars are the largest value sector, much more will be spent on other types of electric vehicle, taken together, over the coming decade. Indeed, cars will represent well under 10% of the profit made in EV manufacture in the next ten years and only 8% of the number of EVs made in 2023.

12 June 2013 - Japanese based company Sumitomo is to build a US$414 million 240 MW gas fired power station in Tanzania. Financing for this project is to be sourced from groups including the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

The power station will be established on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. Tanzania, which has discovered extensive gas resources, is building a 532 km long Chinese funded US$1.2 billion gas pipeline from the south of the country to Dar es Salaam.

12 June 2013 - Rotor blade manufacturer, LM Wind Power says that its ambition is to lower the cost of energy generated by wind power below grid parity, through a research project to develop intelligent blades based on wireless sensor technology.
 
The sensors in the blades will be able to predict weather conditions and calculate when they can harvest the most energy from the wind while ensuring minimum loads on the wind turbine. The technology could be a real game changer, enabling developers to install more powerful turbines with increasingly longer blades without incurring the excessive additional cost it requires for strengthening the turbine structure.