Gist Coven

West Africa’s biggest solar power plant came online on Wednesday (29 November) as Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, inaugurates a novel scheme to boost renewables and cut energy dependence on its neighbours. The 55-hectare plant at Zagtouli on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou will be able to churn out 33 megawatts – enough to power tens of thousands of homes. Presiding over the opening ceremony will be Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, whose country partially funded construction of the facility. “For the past six weeks the plant has been in a test phase with production of 14 MW, and will reach a peak of 33 MW during December, sufficient sunshine permitting,” said the site’s construction manager, Stephane Nosserau. “This is West Africa’s largest plant in terms of installed capacity,” added construction overseer Saidou Nana. The plant’s 129,600 260-watt solar panels are capable of ann...

As it appears there is no immediate hope for electricity consumers to provided with meters, the Federal Government has reinstated the regulation that allows power consumers to purchase meters from approved vendors. According to the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, the government has accordingly directed Nigeria electricity Regulatory Commission for immediate action on the directive. NERC had in September last year directed the 11 electricity distribution companies operating in the country to formally wind down the alternative meter financing scheme on or before November 1, 2016. The scheme was initiated by NERC in 2013. The commission had stated that the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation, which allowed electricity consumers to self-finance meter acquisition and installation given that Discos were unable to promptly deploy meters to them, would cease to exist from November 1, 2016. The ministry said  that both the federal and state governm...