Sub-Saharan Africa

Decades of mismanagement have eroded trust in South Africa’s state-owned energy utility, Eskom. Last year, households and businesses suffered daily blackouts of up to 10 hours, or even longer. Solar and battery energy storage are booming but a domestic PV manufacturing industry has yet to materialize.

A study by engineers at UNSW, published in the Renewable Energy journal, shows that aerosols and greenhouse gas emissions reduce the productivity of photovoltaic installations and that this differs according to the global region.  

Recharge Industries, which had hoped to begin construction on its Geelong lithium-ion gigafactory this year, is reportedly refocusing its manpower on British endeavours. Despite Australia’s growing rhetoric around capturing more of the battery value chain, companies in the space are turning attention overseas.

A research group in Ghana has conducted a series of tests to assess the performance of polycrystalline solar modules in PV systems operating in their home country for at least 5 years. They found that the vast majority of the panels may ‘fail’ before 20 years in operation under outdoor conditions.

Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland said that chemical energy storages were needed for short and long-term balancing in every climate region, especially in the northern climates. Meanwhile, companies are moving forward with their plans to produce hydrogen in Namibia and Morocco.

Mauritian researchers have developed a solar tracker prototype that increases current by around 37%. The device uses a simplified and mechanical tracking system.

UK scientists have discovered that second-life batteries could provide a lower levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) than conventional batteries in school buildings equipped with PV in East African schools. They said the cheapest system configuration uses either 7.5 kW or 10 kW of solar with 20 kWh of storage.

Researchers in South African have developed a new cleaning system for solar panels that uses a colour-sensing light-to-frequency converter to detect dirt. It can reportedly remove about 95% of the dust from a PV panel in less than a minute, at a lower cost than other systems.

On the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflict and allegations of forced labour in sectors critical to the renewable energy transition, awareness of supply chain insecurity has rarely been higher. Seeking to strike while the iron is hot, the Clean Energy Council and law firm Norton Rose Fulbright have published a white paper arguing that Australia’s own renewable energy supply chains could “benefit significantly” by a more concerted effort to address modern slavery.

The off-grid solar sector has shown resilience in the face of pandemic-related challenges, with 70 million people gaining access to electricity from early 2020 to the end of 2021. However, the ability to pay for solar energy kits has taken a hit.