Africa’s waste has the potential to light up millions

March 30, 2025

Norway-based renewable energy company Scatec has begun commercial operation of the initial 60 MW of its 120 MW Mmadinare Solar Cluster in Botswana. This marks Scatec's first venture in the country. The remaining 60 MW of the project is currently under development and is expected to be finished in the first half of 2026.

  • Botswana is currently a net importer of electricity, spending over $150 million annually on electricity imports from the Southern African Power Pool market. In 2023, electricity was the fifth most imported product in the country.   

  • The country is targeting to become a net exporter of electricity by 2030 and is focusing investments in renewables, which it wants to account for 30% of its generation mix by 2030, up from the current 1.1%.

  • Our take: There is a need to open the transmission and distribution network for private sector investments… Read more (2 min)

Climate Fund Managers (CFM), a blended finance firm specialising in climate solutions, has invested $3.1 million in a waste-to-energy plant in Sierra Leone. It will co-develop the plant with an Independent power producer (IPP), Infinitum Energy. The plant will convert 365,000 tonnes of trash into power for 3.3 million people.

  • Africa is in dire need of a waste management solution. The continent is projected to triple its waste generation to 516 million tonnes annually by 2050, a significant 49% increase from 2016.

  • Sierra Leone is joining other African nations in turning waste into grid-scale energy. These include South Africa, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Zimbabwe. If successful, the country will cut back 94,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

  • Our take: Why do only 7 African nations harness trash’s potential?… Read more (2 min)

A $77 million investment in Ghana's energy sector has been approved by Parliament for the 2025 fiscal year. This comes after the country faced load shedding challenges in 2024. The allocation will support initiatives to improve electricity distribution and advance renewable energy through the "Government Goes Solar" project.

  • Commercial and industrial customers have borne the brunt of recent electricity supply cuts. Although they represent just 14% of the total customer base for the electricity utility, their heavy consumption accounts for over 59% of the total electricity used, making them the primary source of revenue for the utility.

  • The government is pushing for the privatisation of its national utility company, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), aiming to improve efficiency and energy service delivery. However, these efforts have been met with opposition.

  • Our take: The government's funding is a positive step, but it ain't enough to completely resolve Ghana's current energy crisis… Read more (2 min)

Solar engineers asses the progress of the 50 MW N’djamena Solar Power Plant in Chad

Events

📆 Attend an event on The Cost of Power (Apr 2)

📆 Register for a webinar on Africa and energy justice (Apr 4)

📆 Unlock your renewable energy engineering potential in this webinar (Apr 8)

Jobs

🦺 Lead Maintenance and engineering operations at CVE (South Africa)

 🔍Join the Circular Microgrids Project as a Research Assistant (Kenya)

📊 Become Arc Power’s Finance Manager (Mozambique)

Various 

💸 UNIDO and Sweden initiate $21.6 million African energy efficiency drive

🟢 Ethiopia's $2.7 billion Koysha Dam is 65% complete.

🤝 Chint Group and Intratek ZW agree to a $2.5 billion East African energy project

Seen on LinkedIn 

Harouna Cherif, Founder of HAR-CHE Business Solutions Ltd, says, "Everyone talks money in Africa’s energy market. Yet, very few talk about the real barrier: Getting power from plants to people.”

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