Category: Energy
New Complaint Adds to Kenya’s Chinese Contractor Woes
A Chinese contractor has slapped the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) with a bill for 1.1 billion Kenyan shillings ($9.6 million) in interest for delayed payments. The contractor, Nari-PCGE, complained to the Kenyan Parliament that it hadn’t been paid for its work on the 428-kilometer Loiyangalani-Suswa transmission line. ...
South Africa’s Limpopo Province Approves $10 Billion Chinese-Finance Coal Project… But There’s Just One Very Small Problem
South Africa's Limpopo Province gave the go-ahead last week for a $10 billion industrial project that includes a 4,600-megawatt coal power plant, a coking facility, and a steel plant. The approval is critical for the development of the controversial Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone. ...
Phasing Down Coal in the Global South
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Cecilia Han Springer Although Chinese President Xi Jinping announced last year that China will no longer build new coal-fired power plants overseas, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center’s China’s Global Power (CGP) Database shows 60 coal ...
New Report Isn’t Optimistic About Chinese Development of Wind and Solar Power Projects in Africa… At Least For Now
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at length last week during his keynote address at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference in Dakar about the need to promote green energy development in Africa. The continent lags far behind the rest of the world in the use ...
Presidents Sall and Ramaphosa Address FOCAC
Senegalese President Macky Sall, host of this year's FOCAC, and President Cyril Rampahosa from South Africa both delivered speeches at the forum on Monday, among the few African leaders this year to speak at the event. Both spoke of the importance ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: China Issues Travel Warning For Both Nigeria & DR Congo
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning on Monday for its citizens in both Nigeria and the DR Congo and called on its nationals in high-risk areas in both countries to evacuate immediately. Spokesman Zhao Lijian specifically called on Chinese nationals in the eastern DRC provinces of ...
COVID Flare-Ups in China Threaten to Disrupt What’s Otherwise Been a Strong Year For China-Africa Trade
While global trade experiences unprecedented disruptions of major supply chain networks, that turbulence does not appear to have had much effect on the volume of Chinese trade with African countries, at least so far. Chinese ...
Energy Think Tank Head Proposes 3 Ways China Can Help to Develop Africa’s Next Generation Power Market
Representatives from eight African countries met with leaders from China's oil and gas industry along with prominent think tank analysts to discuss China-Africa energy cooperation issues in a sideline conference to the Second Belt and Road Ministerial forum on energy trade and investment.
Belt and Road Energy Conference Opens in Qingdao, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to China Among First Day Speakers
Representatives from 32 countries attended the opening day of the Belt and Road Energy Partnership conference in the northern port city of Qingdao on Monday. Ethiopia's ambassador to China Teshome Toga (photo) was among the first day's speakers along with Vice-Premier Han Zheng. ...
China’s Love-Hate Relationship With Coal
If you're confused about China's stance on the use of coal, well, you're definitely not alone. This week, China went on a global coal buying binge in a frantic effort to put a stop to rolling ...
African Coal Exporters Benefitting From China’s Ongoing Electricity Crisis
China is scouring the globe for new sources of coal in an effort to stem the blackouts that have afflicted millions of residents and businesses in at least nine provinces over the past several weeks. While the ongoing crisis is now threatening China's post-pandemic ...
Even After China Bailed on Its Sengwa Coal Plant in Zimbabwe, RioZim Seems Unusually Confident It’ll Find Other Backers
Many presumed that the $3 billion Sengwa coal-fired power plant project in Zimbabwe was doomed after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China withdrew its support earlier this year as the project's largest financier. Not so, according to plant's owner RioZim that said in its half-year trading ...