Africa

Firm reveals plans for Africa’s first lithium-ion gigafactory to supply the energy storage and EV markets

With a raw battery materials supply to rival anywhere in the world, Africa seems the perfect place to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant, yet North America, Europe and Asia have been the locations of choice— until now.

The Megamillion Energy Company aims to be Africa’s first large-scale producer of lithium-ion batteries and plans to build a 32GWh per year facility by 2028 for both the energy storage and electric vehicle markets.

gigafactory

battery materials

Africa

Lithium-ion

battery manufacturing

North America

europe

asia

New markets and better batteries to drive Pb growth in Africa

The lead-acid market in Africa is expected to grow by just over 5% CAGR to more than US$1 billion by 2021, according to a report by market analysts Transparency Market Research.

The continent’s lead–acid market will be led by global manufacturers Exide Technologies, Dixon Batteries, First National Battery, EnerSys, and Johnson Controls, predicts the company in its report Lead Acid Battery Market Report 2018-2026.

First National Battery

enersys

johnson controls

Gravita launches Ghana lead production plant

Indian lead producer and recycler Gravita has launched commercial production of lead from a subsidiary operation in Ghana, West Africa.

Recycler Ghana Limited said the US$3.1 million Ghana facility has an initial production capacity of 6,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). An additional 6,000 MTPA capacity is set to come on stream at the plant from July 2019.

Metair boosts profit on back of strong battery operations

South Africa-based automotive and energy storage group Metair Investments has posted increased operating profit for 2018— boosted by its lead-acid operations in Turkey and Romania.

Metair said group operating profit for the year ended 31 December 2018 increased by 19% to just over ZAR1 billion (US$69 million) compared to the previous year. Revenue for 2018 was ZAR10.28bn, an increase of 8% compared to 2017.

Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 9.4% to ZAR1.33bn.

lithium batteries

lithium-ion batteries

battery manufacturing

profit reports

Gravita expands to boost feed lead recycling operations

Indian lead producer and exporter Gravita has revealed proposals to open nine new lead battery scrap sourcing centres in Africa— to feed its expanding recycling operations on the continent and boost the group’s bottom line.

The move comes just weeks after Gravita said it was expanding its lead-acid battery scrap processing operations overseas with two new facilities in Africa— in Ghana and Tanzania.

Gravita has now received relevant licences to run both African facilities, which are expected to start up this month.

lead battery recyling

battery recyling

asia

ENGIE solar-storage park for South Africa

ENGIE has started commercial operations of its 100MW Kathu Solar Park (KSP) to “provide clean and reliable energy to 179,000 homes” in South Africa.

KSP is a greenfield concentrated solar power project with “parabolic trough technology” and equipped with “a molten salt storage system that allows for 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage”.

The project has been realised under round 3.5 of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme, a competitive tender process launched “to facilitate private sector investment in renewable energy generation”.

solar-plus-storage

Africa

South Africa

molten salt thermal ESS

ENGIE

solar PV

Korean-German partners launch ‘sustainable cobalt’ project in DRC

South Korean firms Samsung SDI and Samsung Electronics are teaming up with German car giant BMW and chemicals group BASF for a joint pilot cobalt mining project to “enhance sustainable mining” for batteries production.

The companies have signed a contract with the German overseas development support agency— Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)— to launch the pilot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Zimbabwe ‘to build batteries’ on back of lithium mining

Zimbabwe’s government has set out proposals to build battery-manufacturing plants as part of a “lithium beneficiation” programme.

The minister for local government, public works and national housing, July Moyo (pictured), said an unspecified number of plants would be built in the country’s central Midlands Province— spurred by renewed lithium mining activity.

Zimbabwe

Africa

lithium

battery manufacturing

mining

EDF acquires BBOXX stake to develop battery storage in Africa

France’s EDF energy group has acquired a 50% stake in venture-backed utility BBOXX, as the companies entered an agreement to develop and market solutions for off-grid electricity in Togo, West Africa.

BBOXX is a London-based company that designs, manufactures and distributes “innovative plug & play solar systems to improve access to energy across Africa and the developing world”. They have deployed more than 150,000 systems to date.

Redflow to supply batteries for South African telecoms towers

Australian flow battery producer Redflow has won an order to supply five of their zinc-bromine units to provide standby energy storage for remote telecoms towers in South Africa.

The sale was made through Redflow’s long-term South African partner, Specialized Solar Systems (SSS), which Redflow said it has worked with to enable its batteries to serve as standby power systems (SPS).