Jason De Carteret

Off-grid solar spent nearly a decade building the audited, standardised performance data investors needed, and in 2025 eighteen new investors arrived, local banks among them. Speaking to ENN ahead of the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum in Kigali, Laura Fortes, Finance and Investment Associate Director at GOGLA, says these deals are the first examples of a pipeline she expects to keep growing.

Yellow Door Energy has started building the 49MWp Lion Thorn Solar Park at Leeudoringstad in North West, with PowerChina as EPC contractor and Nedbank CIB as lender. It is the company’s second solar park in the town contracted to wheel power to the cement producer PPC and the licensed trader POWERX.

Angola wants Southern African governments to help finance the 200,000 barrel-a-day Lobito refinery, due to produce its first fuel in December 2027. Zambia has committed to a 26% stake and Botswana has been offered equity. Sonangol says it will keep at least 51% as it looks for $4.8bn to fund the next phase.

AIKO will supply the solar modules for three Infinity Power projects in South Africa totalling 773.5MWp, all awarded in the seventh bid window of the country’s renewable energy procurement programme. It is the companies’ third collaboration in Africa after two in Egypt, and takes their joint portfolio past 2GWp.

Eskom has opened a request for qualification to find co-development and co-investment partners for up to 6GW of renewable generation and battery storage, the first phase of its new utility-scale renewables business. Eskom Green, being incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary, will contribute at least 2GW of solar and 1GW of batteries.

The 1,443km East African Crude Oil Pipeline will be ready to receive crude by mid-December, Ugandan officials say, with first commercial oil from the Tilenga and Kingfisher fields now expected before the end of June 2027. The Petroleum Authority of Uganda links the change to disrupted equipment shipments from the Middle East.