Category: Energy
Chinese Contractors Complete Burundi’s First New Power Plant in 30 Years
Chinese engineers completed the first phase of the Hujibazi Hydropower Station in Burundi, the country's first new power generation facility in 30 years. This project was financed as an aid initiative and when fully operational later this summer it will generate 15,000 kilowatts of electricity. (CHINA DAILY -- in ...
New U.S. Envoy to Ghana Comes With Considerable China and Energy Experience
The new U.S. ambassador-designate to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, is a veteran diplomat who comes to the job with a 36-year background in African affairs, energy policy and two early-career postings in China and Hong Kong. Prior to arriving in Accra last ...
New Guidelines Puts Green Development at the Heart of the BRI
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the most powerful state body overseeing economic planning, released a new set of guidelines on Monday that will shape the Belt and Road Initiative over the next decade. These guidelines put green development at ...
New Trends in Chinese Overseas Development Finance
In less than six years, China's financing of overseas energy projects in the Global South plunged from $35 billion to zero, according to new data released this week from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. BU's findings mirror a broader pullback ...
China, Europe and the Geopolitics of African Renewable Energy
Both China and the European Union have identified renewable energy as a key part of their engagement strategies with Africa. At FOCAC last year, the Chinese vowed to increase investment in solar, hydro, and other green technologies while the EU made ...
China’s Policy Banks Stopped All Funding For Overseas Energy Projects Last Year
The once seemingly endless flow of Chinese money to fund energy projects throughout the Global South reached a milestone in 2021 when it dropped to zero, according to new research from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. A ...
Outlier or New Normal? Trends from the 2022 China’s Global Energy Finance Database Update
By Cecilia Han Springer 2021 saw persistent economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, narrowing borrowing capacities in developing countries, and a global trend towards phasing out coal. These factors converged in a shocking finding from the 2022 release of the China Global Energy Finance (CGEF) Database, managed ...
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 ...