French power giant EDF has acquired a 50% stake in the Togo-focused unit of off-grid renewable energy specialist BBOXX, with EDF adding its financial clout to speed up solar home system deployments and its technical expertise to improve the energy storage offering.

South Africa’s state-owned utility Eskom has unveiled its Distributed Battery Storage Programme at an event this week, committing to solar-plus-storage and energy storage projects totalling 1400MWh.

Madagascar’s Ministry of Water, Energy and Hydrocarbons (MEEH) has released a list of six pre-qualified bidders for the country’s 25MW(AC) Scaling Solar tender, which is the first to include energy storage in its remit.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the government of Canada have formed a financial partnership that will utilise public funding to generate private sector investments to spur renewable energy, including energy storage, in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has reached out to industry to establish how much interest there is in providing EPC services for a 160MW solar-wind hybrid project coupled with energy stroage in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Plans are in place for a combined 160MW solar and wind project with up to 40MWh of energy storage in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, while a smaller scale demonstration project experimenting with multiple technologies is being developed for Kerala.

Electrification of remote areas of the developing world using solar, storage and microgrids can and should go further than just providing basics like lamps and phone chargers.

Microgrids—distributed systems of localised generation, distribution network and load—are being increasingly deployed particularly in rural areas of emerging and under-developed countries to achieve energy access. However, a “fragmented and unorganised” sector still faces significant challenges, writes Harsh Thacker.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will soon tender for utility-scale solar-plus-storage projects in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.