Masdar set to expand on renewables in West Africa: UAE renewable energy giant Masdar signed an agreement with the Ivory Coast’s Mining, Petroleum and Energy Ministry on Friday to explore the development of a solar power plant with a capacity between 50 MW and 70 MW, according to a company statement. No financial details were announced for the project.

Masdar’s on a roll in Africa: Last week, Infinity Power Holding — a JV between Egypt’s Infinity and Masdar — and Germany’s Conjuncta signed an MoU with Mauritania last week to build a mega green hydrogen plant in the West African country. The company also signed an agreement with Ethiopia in January to develop up to 2 GW of solar capacity. The renewables giant inked another three agreements to develop solar projects in Angola, Uganda, and Zambia with a combined generation capacity of 5 GW on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January. The value of the three projects were not disclosed, but Reuters revealed later that the Zambian solar projects were estimated to cost USD 2 bn. Last August, Masdar also signed an agreement with Tanzania to develop renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 2 GW without disclosing the project cost.

Some of the expansion is part of the Etihad 7 initiative: The initiative — launched by the UAE’s Foreign Ministry in January of last year — aims to attract public and private funding to invest in Africa’s renewable energy sector enabling the continent to generate 20 GW of renewable energy by 2035.

And Masdar is not alone: UAE’s Amea Power inked an agreement for a new 50 MW solar power plant in Ivory Coast last January and has solar projects in Burkina Faso and Mali. It also added 20 MW of capacity to its existing solar project in Togo reaching a generation capacity of 70 MW last November.

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