How storage helps turn gold mines green
BY RICHARD HEAP: This week, BayWa and Suntrace fired up a 30MW solar plant with a 15.4MWh battery storage system at the Fekola gold mine in Mali in west Africa. The project is set to…
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Will Senegal be a storage pioneer?
BY RICHARD HEAP: Most energy storage development is focused on the world’s richest countries. This is understandable, given that most of us in the west expect uninterrupted access to our electricals. Storage can help to…
How PV-and-battery systems are being used to light up remote African villages
By Jason Deign German start-up Africa GreenTec is ramping up production of containerised solar-plus-storage systems in a bid to meet rural electrification demand from hundreds of African villages.
Concept by US breaks into Africa
By Jason Deign Florida, USA-based energy storage start-up Concept by US is due to start shipping its all-in-one battery systems to Africa in May. For the African market, the company has created a 50Hz, 220V, three-phase version…
How phase-change materials are saving lives
By Jason Deign Phase-change materials (PCMs) are boldly going into an energy storage realm where even the most modern battery technologies have failed to deliver: saving lives. Dulas, a Welsh renewable energy technology company, is…
Encell’s hardy battery targets emerging markets
By Jason Deign Battery start-up Encell Technology is taking aim on emerging markets with a residential-scale product that bucks the current trend for sleek, eye-catching design. The company’s Fused Iron batteries are visually unimpressive but…
South Africa supports storage
In an update to a story we first ran back in March, the government of South Africa has recently announced its backing for Ballard Power and Anglo American Platinum’s deployment of a domestic fuel cell system. Field trials…
SMA plans new South Africa factory
SMA Solar Technology is expanding its presence in South Africa with the creation of an inverter factory. “Here photovoltaics is already a financially attractive alternative to other forms of power generation,” said SMA chief executive Pierre-Pascal Urbon….