Category: South Africa

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GTI calls for 2.3GHz Band Industry development to speed up

BEIJING, Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Ever since 4G, 2.3 GHz has been regarded as a golden frequency by global operators. Indeed, 2.3 GHz provides both capacity and coverage, which 5G makes full use of to significantly extend the performance of legacy 4G. In particular, the large channel bandwidth of 2.3 GHz is perfectly aligned to accommodate 5G capacity.

Despite pressure under the global health crisis, the industry behind 2.3 GHz has shown no signs of slowing down over the past year. In fact, it has even accelerated with the launch of several new smartphones supporting 2.3 GHz. With over 70 4G/5G commercial references on 2.3 GHz, it has been forecast that more operators and terminal vendors will take up 2.3 GHz in the near future.

To promote the further development of the 2.3 GHz industry, GTI leads industry partners such as operators and terminal vendors to call for:

1. Accelerate the allocation of TDD 2.3GHz spectrum (2300-2400 MHz) with TDD continuous large bandwidth up to 100 MHz, reduce the deployment cost per bit, and improve user experience across generations.

2. Remove possible barriers of the use of 2.3GHz. The industry is urged to work together to solve the problem of network coexistence and improve spectrum availability.

3. Promote the devices industry chain to make mandatory the support of NR 2.3GHz frequency in 2022, and better support key features such as EN-DC, carrier aggregation, SUL, 1T4R/2T4R SRS Antenna Switching and 80~100 MHz channel bandwidth.

4. Promote efficiently use of TDD 2.3GHz spectrum and accelerate commercial launch by global operators.

Video: https://v.qq.com/x/page/g3301egqnrw.html

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1661628/Image1.jpg

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Huawei’s Yang Chaobin: Innovation for 5Gigaverse Society

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — During the 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) 2021, Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei Wireless Solution, delivered a keynote speech titled “Innovation for 5Gigaverse Society”.

Huawei’s Yang Chaobin: Innovation for 5Gigaverse Society

“5G is developing rapidly worldwide, with more than 170 networks built and nearly 500 million users developed within two years. As 5G commercial deployment enters a new phase, users need more continuous experience, and industry digitalization poses new requirements on 5G capabilities. Therefore, we believe that the next step is to evolve 5G from hotspot to all-scenario continuous coverage, from Gbps to 5Gigaverse, and from pilot industry to all-industry digitalization, to build a ubiquitous gigabit network and a 5Gigaverse society,” said Mr. Yang.

Changes in user behavior and industry digitization pose higher requirements on 5G. According to the viewing statistics during the sport events held in Tokyo this year, the number of views through mobile devices increased by five times compared with 2012, while the amount of TV watching dropped by 50%. In terms of FWA, the number of users exceeds that of wired users. In addition, the 5G DOU has increased by three times compared with that of 4G as video services grow. Therefore, it is expected that by 2030, mobile networks will carry more traffic than wired networks and become the main bearer of internet traffic. In toB exploration, progress has been made in industry digitalization. 5G has enabled more than 10,000 scenarios in more than 20 industries worldwide. In the future, 5G capabilities will continue to evolve to incorporate fragmented connections in various industries, creating an IoT space with hundreds of billions of connections.

“So, a macro-pole-indoor 3D networking mode needs to be adopted to maximize the value of macro sites by deploying pole sites and indoor products on demand. In this way, we’ll be able to build 5G networks with continuous coverage to enable toB and toC and embrace a 5Ggaverse society,” said Mr. Yang.

Massive MIMO and ultra-wideband maximize macro coverage and capacity. Macro sites account for up to 45% of operators’ investment in network construction. Therefore, how to maximize macro capacity and coverage becomes a top concern. Two years of commercial 5G deployment has proved that the Massive MIMO and ultra-wideband technologies can improve user experience by 10 times and have become the choice of most operators around the world. “Different spectrum requires different strategies customized based on their characteristics. The TDD spectrum featuring high bandwidth and large capacity has weaker coverage compared with low frequency bands and requires coverage improvement, while FDD featuring wide coverage and fragmented spectrum requires capacity improvement. Therefore, we launched a full range of 5G base station products this year to help operators meet these requirements,” said Mr. Yang.

“It has become an industry consensus that Massive MIMO is the right choice for deployment with continuous large-bandwidth TDD bands. For markets with discrete spectrum, Huawei launched Massive MIMO AAU with 400 MHz bandwidth to enable simplified deployment. For markets with limited antenna spaces, Huawei offers BladeAAU that supports simplified single-antenna deployment through the integration of sub-3 GHz and Massive MIMO.” Huawei also released the new 64TRX MetaAAU with improved performance and energy saving.

“Our brand-new MetaAAU introduces the extreme-large antenna array (ELAA) technology and the innovative AHR Turbo solution, marking a new breakthrough in Massive MIMO coverage and energy efficiency. Compared with the traditional AAUs with 192 antenna elements, ELAA features 384 antenna elements and is integrated with the ultra-light integrated array and SDIF technologies to improve both coverage and integration. AHR Turbo, an adaptive high-resolution beamforming algorithm, enables the MetaAAU to be precise, dynamic, and targeted, greatly improving user experience and cell capacity. By now, this product has been put into commercial use in four cities by the three tier-1 operators in China. MetaAAU provides 3 dB better coverage and 30% better user experience compared with 64T, and 6 dB better coverage and 60% better user experience compared with 32T. It allows base stations to achieve the same level of cell edge coverage with a lower transmit power, reducing energy consumption by about 30% compared with traditional AAUs.”

For markets where new TDD bands are not licensed yet, the legacy FDD spectrum can be used to modernize installed bases using the Massive MIMO and ultra-wideband technologies, reducing deployment costs and improving 4G and 5G experience and capacity.

Huawei’s high-power, ultra-wideband 4T4R RRU, unique in the industry, supports three bands (700 MHz, 800 MHz, and 900 MHz; 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 2.6 GHz/1.4 GHz) in one box, simplifying multi-band network deployment. It enables full-band and all-RAT dynamic power sharing, improving user experience by 30% and reducing power consumption by 30%. For modernization of legacy spectrum, Huawei launched ultra-high-power, ultra-wideband 8T8R RRU, which is also unique in the industry. This product supports 1.8 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands in one box. It works with the first Hertz platform-based 8T8R native antenna, greatly improving coverage and capacity.

For high-capacity scenarios with limited antenna spaces, Huawei will launch FDD BladeAAU which packs Massive MIMO and the sub-3 GHz full-band antenna in one box this year, enabling simplified deployment of sub-3 GHz sites. The FDD BladeAAU and MetaAAU can be used together to further empower simplified deployment of all frequency bands, enabling Massive MIMO to provide coverage that can match 900 MHz 2T2R. This allows operators to achieve a wide, seamless gigabit experience.

Pole sites extend macro coverage with on-demand simplified deployment for coverage hole fill-up and at hotspots. This is important for mobile networks in streets and residential areas where site acquisition is challenging, as they offer a simple approach to deploy macro sites by leveraging lamp poles and walls. The pole sites must support both TDD and FDD bands to cover both 4G and 5G users. In 2020, Huawei launched a series of simplified solutions, TDD and FDD dual-band EasyMacro 3.0 and BookRRU 3.0, to help operators quickly fill up 5G coverage holes. This year, Huawei released a new pole site product EasyBlink 2.0 to further simplify pole site deployment. The industry’s smallest and lightest AAU product – just 20 L and 10 kg – EasyBlink 2.0 supports 32T32R and uses optimized antenna arrays, lending itself to conveniently improving coverage or capacity in areas such as streets where coverage holes often occur or capacity is limited due to challenging macro deployment.

Huawei provides the industry’s only distributed Massive MIMO solution for 5G indoor ubiquitous Gbps experience. In indoor areas, simplified deployment is crucial for operators to implement multi-RAT and multi-band deployment that can ensure optimal user experience. Huawei’s LampSite solution supports TDD and FDD bands of multiple radio access technologies in one box and supports indoor distributed Massive MIMO. These features enable it to improve network capacity fourfold compared with 4T4R, ensuring indoor ubiquitous Gbps experience. It is the best suited to provide coverage in major indoor areas, such as airports, railway stations, and shopping malls.

Huawei provides a simplified 5GtoB solution for different campus scenarios. In factories and campuses, custom coverage is often required on the macro networks that are used to ensure continuous coverage. LampSite and EasyMacro provide an ideal choice for operators to quickly implement 5G coverage in indoor and outdoor campus areas, respectively. The SUL solution further enables operators to provide Gigabit uplink data speed. Huawei’s 5GtoB solutions also enables operators to conveniently meet the differentiated requirements of different industries in uplink ultra-wideband, high-precision positioning, low latency, and high reliability.

Intelligent engine drives networks to autonomous driving. In this decade, multi-band and multi-standard co-existence will be a major trend. Operators must coordinate macro, pole, and indoor 3D network O&M, meet differentiated experience of toB, toC, and toH users, and maximize network performance with minimized power consumption. This further highlights the urgency of developing intelligent wireless networks. With this in mind, Huawei has launched its intelligent engine, which covers PowerStar 2.0, Capacity Turbo, WTTx Suite, and 5GtoB Suite to promote autonomous driving networks. PowerStar 2.0 introduces intelligence to base stations. It analyzes factors such as coverage, load, and service type and generates energy saving policies to help reduce network energy consumption by 25% while maintaining premium performance. Capacity Turbo implements 3D coordination among macro, pole, and indoor networks through intelligent analysis and decision-making, such as beam measurement, traffic map, and user rate, achieving optimal experience in all scenarios on all frequency bands. As a result, user experience can be improved by more than 30%. The 5G WTTx Suite provides accurate rate evaluation based on user locations and identification and optimization of poor-performing CPEs. It enables operators to determine where services can be provisioned and what user experience should be provided while reducing poor-performing CPEs by 30%. The 5GtoB Suite provides intelligent and precise planning and proactive device/network O&M functions to help enterprises plan toB networks and manage toB QoS. With the 5GtoB Suite, the network planning time for a factory is reduced from more than 40 hours to about 8 hours. In addition, the 5GtoB Suite can be used to quickly locate and rectify faults within 15 minutes.

“Innovation will never stop. The next decade will be a decade of 5G. 5G will continue to evolve and innovate toward 5.5G. We hope to work with global partners to continuously innovate based on user experience and industry requirements to take user experience to new heights while digitally transforming industries.”

The 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum offers an opportunity for the mobile and adjacent vertical ecosystems to reconnect, rebuild, and reimagine a fully connected, intelligent world. Topics currently under discussion with global partners range from maximizing the potential of 5G, including industry use cases and applications, to advancing the mobile future.

For more information, please visit: https://www.huawei.com/en/events/mbbf2021.

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Huawei’s Ma Hongbo: 5Go S.M.A.R.T., Ushering Wireless Networks into the Intelligent and Autonomous Era

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Ma Hongbo, President of Huawei Wireless SingleOSS Product Line, delivered a keynote titled “5Go S.M.A.R.T., Ushering Wireless Networks into the Intelligent and Autonomous Era ” at the 4th Wireless Autonomous Driving Network Industry Forum. The forum was held within the framework of the 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum. In his speech, Mr. Ma highlighted the importance of network autonomy for 5G operators, predicting five key areas of evolution for wireless networks: Simplified, Maximizing, Agile, Robust, and Thinking (5Go S.M.A.R.T.). These changes will bring about autonomous driving networks featuring automated O&M, ultimate performance, and low carbon footprint.

Figure: Five trends for wireless autonomous driving networks

Operators Focus on Autonomous Driving Networks

Over the past decade, wireless network evolution has brought new opportunities along with increased network OPEX and O&M complexity. With 5G, the mobile communications industry is promoting the concept of autonomous driving networks by integrating wireless networks with intelligence.

During the keynote, Mr. Ma explained that operators are gradually and hierarchically implementing autonomous driving networks as their core strategy. In fact, according to research by TMF Autonomous Networks in 2021, over 80% of the 42 independently interviewed operators believe that they will deploy a large-scale fully autonomous driving network in the next decade.

5Go S.M.A.R.T.: Five Trends for Wireless Autonomous Driving Networks

Wireless autonomous driving networks will integrate both network and site intelligence, developing independent intelligence processes and gradually evolving toward intelligent autonomy.

Trend 1 Go Simplified: Network construction will become more intelligent and simplified throughout its lifecycle. Intelligence will be introduced to sites, facilitating intelligent sensing and simplified site configuration, sort of like adding “eyes” and a “brain”. The intelligence of networks and base stations will collaborate to adapt to a variety of contexts, resulting in network self-configuration and intelligent auxiliary site acceptance. Ultimately, the entire lifecycle of network construction will be simplified.

Trend 2 Go Maximizing: Vertical collaboration will maximize network potential. Intelligence will also be introduced to the air interface, along with using technologies, such as channel graph and scheduling dictionary, for more flexible resource scheduling and spectrum decoupling, maximizing the single-site performance. The network will use 3D beam scheduling and intelligent parameter optimization to maximize performance on all frequency bands. Along with improved performance and experience, the network will balance and maximize network energy efficiency using energy-saving technologies at the site, device, and network layers.

Trend 3 Go Agile: The entire process of 5G services will become more agile. Today, every industry requires better network construction and maintenance than in the past. As such, intelligence will be introduced to the planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization phases of toB networks. This will result in automatic service intent translation, precise intelligent network planning, and proactive service assurance, making 5GtoB service rollout more agile.

Trend 4 Go Robust: 5G networks will become more reliable. Intelligence capabilities, such as fault feature self-learning and intelligent time sequence analysis, will be introduced to implement accurate fault identification and intelligent root cause analysis. This will transform troubleshooting from manual to automatic, implement fault prediction and prevention, transition from passive response to proactive maintenance, enhance network robustness, and ultimately build more reliable 5G networks.

Trend 5 Go Thinking: 5G networks will be able to “think”. Together, site and network intelligence will become the foundation for wireless autonomous driving networks. Base stations will gradually become intelligent, creating digital twins. They will also possess device-pipe federated learning capability to add intelligence to each terminal. The powerful computing capability of the wireless intelligent engine will be able to self-learn and self-evolve using massive network data along with algorithms and models. Finally, wireless networks will essentially be able to think.

Ma Hongbo noted, “Currently, autonomous driving networks in the mobile communications field are at the levels between L2 and L3. To achieve fully autonomous driving networks requires the joint efforts of all industry stakeholders in terms of level criteria, evaluation systems, and application collaboration. Huawei will continue to work with operators and industry partners to innovate S.M.A.R.T. and enable autonomous networks.”

The 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum offers an opportunity for the mobile and adjacent vertical ecosystems to reconnect, rebuild, and reimagine a fully connected, intelligent world. Topics currently under discussion with global partners range from maximizing the potential of 5G, including industry use cases and applications, to advancing the mobile future.

For more information, please visit: https://www.huawei.com/en/events/mbbf2021

About Huawei
Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have more than 197,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.
Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go. For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:
http://www.linkedin.com/company/Huawei
http://www.twitter.com/Huawei
http://www.facebook.com/Huawei
http://www.youtube.com/Huawei

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Huawei’s Ryan Ding: Green 5G Networks for a Low-Carbon Future

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — At the 2021 Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF), Ryan Ding, Huawei’s Executive Director and President of the Carrier Business Group, gave a keynote speech entitled “Green 5G Networks for a Low-Carbon Future”. In his speech, Ding said that 5G has become a new engine for the growth of the mobile industry, and that to adapt to the rapid growth of data traffic, the whole industry will need to keep pursuing innovations in power supply, distribution, use, and management, and build greener 5G networks with higher performance and lower energy consumption.

Ryan Ding speaks at 2021 MBBF

According to Ding, in countries where 5G is developing faster, operators who have invested heavily in 5G have seen remarkable returns, but he stressed that operators will realize business value only when the 5G user penetration rate is high enough. When the 5G user penetration rate reaches a threshold of 20%, Ding said, rapid development of 5G will follow. In countries such as China, South Korea, and Kuwait, operators were quick to provide continuous nationwide coverage, giving users a consistent experience. They also offer flexible service packages, which delivers a win-win result for both users and themselves. In addition, these operators are providing a gigabit experience—a tangible improvement over 4G—to accelerate user migration and network evolution. In these countries, the 5G user penetration rate has exceeded the 20% threshold, triggering a positive cycle of user growth, business returns, and network construction.

High-quality 5G networks will drive the rapid growth of mobile data traffic. It is estimated that the average data traffic per user per month will reach 600 GB by 2030. If the energy efficiency of existing networks remains unchanged, the energy consumption of wireless networks will increase by more than tenfold. Ding said that to cut the ICT industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 45%, operators will need to pursue ongoing innovations in power supply, distribution, use, and management to build greener 5G networks with higher performance and lower energy consumption.

Huawei itself offers a comprehensive range of products and solutions that address power consumption issues of wireless networks. The company has developed the iSolar power supply solution that covers all scenarios, including poles, cabinets, sites, and equipment rooms. This solution can reduce the use of electricity from grids and fossil fuels by diesel generators and improve the energy mix that powers base stations. On the power distribution front, Huawei provides an industry-leading high-density power solution. For each site, just one cabinet—or even just one blade—is needed, which supports the long-term evolution of mobile networks. To use power more efficiently, Huawei has redesigned site form factors and now offers highly integrated simplified site solutions for use in all scenarios. These solutions maximize the share of energy used by communications equipment and ensure electricity is fully used. Wireless networks need to work in synergy with power supply, distribution, and use. This means operators need to use information flows to manage energy flows, in order to maximize energy use and save energy at the network level.

Toward the end of his speech, Ding said Huawei has already deployed low-carbon site solutions in more than 100 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Greece, Pakistan, and Switzerland, helping operators reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 million tons. As a player in the communications industry, Huawei will continue to put green development at the center of everything it does and develop innovative solutions to build greener 5G networks with operators worldwide.

The Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2021 is hosted by Huawei, together with its industry partners GSMA and the SAMENA Telecommunications Council. The forum gathers mobile network operators, vertical industry leaders, and ecosystem partners from around the world to discuss how to maximize the potential of 5G and push the mobile industry forward. For more information, please visit: https://www.huawei.com/en/events/mbbf2021

About   Huawei

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have more than 197,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go. For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:

http://www.linkedin.com/company/Huawei
http://www.twitter.com/Huawei
http://www.facebook.com/Huawei
http://www.youtube.com/Huawei

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Lack of investment in clean energy compromising fight against climate change and poverty

  • New research highlights a chronic lack of finance that will leave billions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia without electricity or clean cooking by 2030
  • Urgent action to accelerate investment in clean energy for developing countries is needed from global leaders assembling at COP26 to ensure a just energy transition

VIENNA, Austria, Oct. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This year’s Energizing Finance research series – developed by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) in partnership with Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and Dalberg Advisors – shows the world is falling perilously short of the investment required to achieve energy access for all by 2030 for the seventh consecutive year.

In fact, tracked finance for electricity in the 20 countries that make up 80 percent of the world’s population without electricity – the high-impact countries – declined by 27 percent in 2019, the year before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The economic strain caused by Covid-19 is expected to have caused even further reductions in energy access investment in 2020 and 2021.

Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021, one of two reports released under the series, finds committed finance for residential electricity access fell to USD 12.9 billion in 2019 (from USD 16.1 billion in 2018) in the 20 countries. This is less than one-third of the USD 41 billion estimated annual investment needed globally to attain universal electricity access from 2019 to 2030.

Meanwhile, there is an abysmal amount of finance for clean cooking. Despite polluting cooking fuels causing millions of premature deaths each year and being the second largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide, only USD 133.5 million in finance for clean cooking solutions was tracked in 2019. This is nowhere near the estimated USD 4.5 billion in annual investment required to achieve universal access to clean cooking (accounting only for clean cookstove costs).

These findings have been released just ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, where global leaders will focus on how to spark meaningful progress on fighting climate change. As part of this, they will need to consider how to reduce global emissions from the energy sector while also increasing energy access in developing countries to support their economic development.

“We are at a critical moment in the energy-climate conversation,” said Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. “What is clear is that the path to net zero can only happen with a just and equitable energy transition that provides access to clean and affordable energy to the 759 million people who have no electricity access and 2.6 billion people who lack access to clean cooking solutions. This requires resources to mitigate climate change and create new opportunities to drive economic development and enable people everywhere to thrive. Energizing Finance provides an evidence base of current energy finance commitments and the finance countries require to meet SDG7 energy targets.”

In 2018, 50 percent of total electricity finance flowed to grid-connected fossil fuels in the high-impact countries compared to 25 percent in 2019. While this is a positive trend for the climate, tracked investment in off-grid and mini-grid technology also declined and represented only 0.9 percent of finance tracked to electricity.

Dr. Barbara Buchner, Global Managing Director at CPI, who partnered with SEforALL on Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021, said: “Achieving both the Paris Agreement and universal energy access requires far greater investment in grid-connected renewables and off-grid and mini-grid solutions than what has been tracked in Energizing Finance. These solutions are essential to helping high-impact countries develop their economies without a reliance on fossil fuels.”

To better illuminate the challenges high-impact countries face, the second publication in the series, Energizing Finance: Taking the Pulse 2021, offers a detailed look at the estimated volume and type of finance needed by enterprises and customers to achieve universal energy access for both electricity and clean cooking by 2030 in Mozambique, Ghana and Vietnam. Importantly, it illustrates the energy affordability challenges people face in these countries and the need for financial support for consumers, such as subsidies.

The report finds that providing access to clean fuels and technologies, i.e. modern energy cooking solutions, in Ghana, Mozambique and Vietnam will cost a total of USD 37-48 billion by 2030; 70 percent of which will be for fuels (e.g., LPG, ethanol and electricity). A more achievable scenario would be for all three countries to deliver universal access to improved cookstoves at a total cost of USD 1.05 billion by 2030.

“Ghana, Mozambique and Vietnam each have unique challenges to achieving universal access to electricity and clean cooking,” said Aly-Khan Jamal, Partner at Dalberg Advisors, who partnered with SEforALL on Energizing Finance: Taking the Pulse 2021. “This research digs deep into these national contexts to identify solutions that can make Sustainable Development Goal 7 a reality.”

Providing results-based financing for energy project developers and exploring policies that facilitate demand-side subsidy support and reduce taxes on solar home systems are among several policy recommendations presented for Ghana, Mozambique and Vietnam.

Energizing Finance also advocates for increased innovation in financial instruments to reach the scale of finance needed for universal clean cooking access; for integration of electricity access, cooking access and climate change strategies; and for national governments, bilateral donors, philanthropies, and DFIs to all increase their efforts to mobilize commercial capital to Sub-Saharan African countries.

More of the reports’ key findings and recommendations are available here.

Notes to editors

Contact
For further details on the reports or any interview requests, please contact: Sherry Kennedy, Sustainable Energy for All: Sherry.Kennedy@SEforALL.org / media@seforall.org or +43 676 846 727 237

About Sustainable Energy for All

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is an international organization that works in partnership with the United Nations and leaders in government, the private sector, financial institutions, civil society and philanthropies to drive faster action towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) – access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 – in line with the Paris Agreement on climate. SEforALL works to ensure a clean energy transition that leaves no one behind and brings new opportunities for everyone to fulfill their potential.

SEforALL is led by Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. Follow her on Twitter @DamilolaSDG7. For more information, follow @SEforALLorg.

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Le manque d’investissements en faveur des énergies propres met à mal la lutte contre le changement climatique et la pauvreté

  • De nouvelles recherches montrent que d’ici à 2030, le manque chronique de financements dont pâtissent l’Afrique subsaharienne et l’Asie empêchera plusieurs milliards de personnes d’accéder à l’électricité et à des moyens de cuisson non polluants.
  • Les grands dirigeants mondiaux qui se réuniront dans le cadre de la COP26 pour assurer une transition énergétique juste doivent prendre des mesures immédiates pour accélérer les investissements en faveur des énergies propres dans les pays en développement.

VIENNE, Autriche, 14 oct. 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — La dernière série de rapports Energizing Finance – élaborée par Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) en partenariat avec la Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) et le cabinet Dalberg Advisors – révèle que pour la septième année consécutive, les investissements mondiaux sont sérieusement inférieurs aux niveaux requis pour garantir à tous l’accès à l’énergie d’ici à 2030.

Le suivi des financements alloués à l’électricité a même permis de montrer qu’en 2019, avant l’irruption de la pandémie de COVID-19, les 20 pays comptant 80 % de la population mondiale privée d’électricité – autrement dit, les pays à fort impact – avaient subi une baisse d’investissements de l’ordre de 27 %. On anticipe déjà une baisse supplémentaire des investissements en faveur de l’accès à l’énergie pour 2020 et 2021, en raison des difficultés économiques liées à la COVID-19.

Le rapport Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021, publié dans le cadre de la série susmentionnée, montre que le financement en faveur de l’accès à l’électricité domestique au sein de ces 20 pays est passé de 16,1 milliards de dollars US en 2018 à 12,9 milliards de dollars US en 2019 : un montant plus de trois fois inférieur aux 41 milliards de dollars US annuels dont on estime avoir besoin, à l’échelle mondiale, pour garantir un accès universel à l’électricité d’ici à 2030.

Dans le même temps, le niveau de financement pour les moyens de cuisson non polluants reste désespérément bas. Les combustibles de cuisson polluants sont à l’origine de plusieurs millions de décès prématurés chaque année et représentent le deuxième facteur de dérèglement climatique, derrière le dioxyde de carbone. Pourtant, sur la base des investissements enregistrés en 2019, seuls 133,5 millions de dollars US ont été consacrés au développement de moyens de cuisson non polluants cette année-là. Un montant très en deçà des 4,5 milliards de dollars US annuels dont on estime avoir besoin pour garantir un accès universel aux moyens de cuisson non polluants (et qui ne couvrent que l’achat de foyers de cuisson non polluants).

Ces résultats ont été publiés peu de temps avant la COP26 qui se tiendra à Glasgow et au cours de laquelle les grands dirigeants mondiaux devront trouver le moyen d’amorcer des progrès significatifs en matière de lutte contre le changement climatique. Dans cette perspective, les participants seront amenés à réfléchir aux différentes pistes permettant de réduire les émissions mondiales du secteur de l’énergie, tout en renforçant la croissance des pays en développement et en favorisant leur accès énergétique.

« Nous nous trouvons à une étape cruciale du débat sur l’énergie et le climat », explique Damilola Ogunbiyi, PDG et représentante spéciale du Secrétaire général des Nations Unies pour l’énergie durable pour tous et coprésidente d’ONU-Énergie. « Il semble désormais établi que l’objectif “zéro émission nette” ne sera atteint qu’au moyen d’une transition énergétique juste et équitable, donnant accès à une énergie propre à un coût abordable aux 759 millions de personnes privées d’électricité et aux 2,6 milliards de personnes dépourvues de moyens de cuisson non polluants. Cela passe par le déploiement de ressources pour lutter contre le changement climatique, créer de nouvelles opportunités de développement économique et permettre aux populations du monde entier de vivre dans la prospérité. Energizing Finance offre une base de données probantes qui permet de déterminer les investissements actuellement consacrés à l’énergie ainsi que les financements dont les pays ont besoin pour atteindre les cibles fixées par l’ODD 7 relatif à l’énergie. »

En 2018, 50 % de l’ensemble des financements consacrés à l’électricité ont été investis dans les combustibles fossiles raccordés au réseau au sein des pays à fort impact, contre 25 % en 2019. Il s’agit d’une évolution positive pour le climat, mais dans le même temps, l’étude révèle une baisse des investissements alloués aux technologies hors réseau et aux mini-réseaux, qui ne représentaient plus que 0,9 % des sommes consacrées à l’électricité.

Dr. Barbara Buchner, Directrice générale mondiale de la Climate Policy Initiative, qui s’est associée à SEforALL pour élaborer le rapport Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021, a déclaré : « Pour respecter l’Accord de Paris et faire de l’accès universel à l’énergie une réalité, il faut que les énergies renouvelables raccordées au réseau et les solutions de mini-réseaux/hors réseau puissent s’appuyer sur un niveau d’investissement largement supérieur à ce qui a été observé dans le cadre du rapport Energizing Finance. Ces solutions sont indispensables pour soutenir le développement économique des pays à fort impact, en évitant toute dépendance aux combustibles fossiles. »

Afin de mieux mettre en lumière les défis que doivent relever les pays à fort impact, la deuxième publication de la série, Energizing Finance: Taking the Pulse 2021, étudie de façon détaillée les volumes et les catégories de financement estimés nécessaires pour que les entreprises et les consommateurs obtiennent, d’ici à 2030, l’accès universel à l’électricité et aux moyens de cuisson non polluants au Mozambique, au Ghana et au Vietnam. Le rapport se concentre en particulier sur les difficultés que rencontrent les populations de ces pays pour accéder à l’énergie à un coût abordable et sur le soutien financier dont les consommateurs ont besoin, notamment à travers des subventions.

Le rapport conclut que d’ici à 2030, le coût total, pour les trois pays, d’un accès à des technologies et à des combustibles propres, c’est-à-dire à des moyens de cuisson modernes, serait compris entre 37 et 48 milliards de dollars US ; 70 % de cette somme serait consacrée aux combustibles (par exemple, le GPL, l’éthanol et l’électricité). Une autre solution, plus facile à mettre en place, consisterait à y instaurer un accès universel à des foyers de cuisson améliorés, pour un coût total de 1,05 milliard de dollars US d’ici à 2030.

« Le Ghana, le Mozambique et le Vietnam font face à des difficultés bien distinctes dans leurs efforts respectifs pour obtenir l’accès universel à l’électricité et à des moyens de cuisson non polluants », explique Aly-Khan Jamal, associé au sein du cabinet Dalberg Advisors, qui a contribué aux côtés de SEforALL à la rédaction du rapport Energizing Finance: Taking the Pulse 2021. « Ce travail de recherche étudie en profondeur ces différents contextes nationaux afin d’identifier des solutions permettant de réaliser l’objectif de développement durable 7. »

Parmi les recommandations adressées au Ghana, au Mozambique et au Vietnam en matière de politiques publiques, on peut notamment citer la mise en place d’un financement basé sur résultats pour l’accès à l’énergie (FBR) à destination des promoteurs de projets de développement énergétique, ainsi que des mesures d’aide à la consommation et de réduction des taxes sur les installations solaires domestiques.

Energizing Finance plaide également en faveur d’instruments financiers plus innovants pour contribuer au déploiement à grande échelle des financements nécessaires à l’accès universel aux moyens de cuisson non polluants. L’étude défend aussi la mise en place de stratégies intégrées de lutte contre le changement climatique et d’accès à l’électricité et à des moyens de cuisson non polluants. Enfin, elle encourage les gouvernements nationaux, les donateurs bilatéraux, les fondations philanthropiques et les institutions de financement du développement à accentuer leurs efforts pour mobiliser des capitaux commerciaux en faveur des pays d’Afrique subsaharienne.

D’autres résultats clés et recommandations issus des rapports sont disponibles ici.

NOTES AUX ÉDITEURS

Contact

Pour plus de détails sur les rapports ou toute demande d’entretien, veuillez contacter : Sherry Kennedy, Sustainable Energy for All : Sherry.Kennedy@SEforALL.org / Media@SEforALL.org | +43 676 846 727 237

À propos de Sustainable Energy for All

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) est une organisation internationale qui travaille en partenariat avec les Nations Unies et des dirigeants de gouvernements, du secteur privé, d’institutions financières, de la société civile et d’organismes philanthropes afin d’accélérer l’action en vue de la réalisation de l’Objectif de développement durable 7 (ODD 7) – garantir l’accès de tous à des services énergétiques fiables, durables et modernes à un coût abordable d’ici 2030 – conformément à l’Accord de Paris sur le climat. SEforALL œuvre pour assurer une transition énergétique propre qui ne laisse personne de côté et offre à chacun de nouvelles opportunités de réaliser son potentiel. SEforALL est dirigée par Damilola Ogunbiyi, PDG et représentante spéciale du Secrétaire général des Nations Unies pour l’énergie durable pour tous et coprésidente d’ONU-Énergie. Suivez-la sur Twitter @DamilolaSDG7. Pour plus d’informations, suivez @SEforALLorg.

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Falta de investimento em energia limpa compromete luta contra as alterações climáticas e a pobreza

  • Novos estudos colocam em evidência uma falta de financiamento crónica que irá deixar milhares de milhões de pessoas na África Subsariana e na Ásia sem eletricidade ou cozinha limpa até 2030
  • São necessárias medidas urgentes para acelerar o investimento na energia limpa nos países em desenvolvimento por parte dos líderes globais que irão estar reunidos na COP26 a fim de garantir uma transição energética justa

VIENA, Áustria, Oct. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A série de investigação da Energizing Finance deste ano, desenvolvida pela Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) em parceria com a Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) e a Dalberg Advisors, demonstra que o mundo está a ficar perigosamente aquém do previsto no que se refere ao investimento necessário para alcançar o acesso à energia para todos até 2030 pelo sétimo ano consecutivo.

De facto, o financiamento para a eletricidade registado nos 20 países que acolhem 80% da população mundial sem eletricidade – os países de alto impacto – diminuiu 27% em 2019, o ano anterior ao aparecimento da pandemia de COVID-19. Prevê-se que as pressões económicas causadas pela COVID-19 tenham resultado em reduções ainda mais acentuadas no investimento no acesso à energia em 2020 e 2021.

Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021, um dos dois relatórios publicados nesta série, revela que o financiamento concedido para o acesso a eletricidade residencial caiu para 12,9 mil milhões de dólares em 2019 (face a 16,1 mil milhões de dólares em 2018) nos 20 países. Este valor representa menos de um terço do investimento anual estimado de 41 mil milhões de dólares necessário a nível global para alcançar o acesso universal à eletricidade até 2030.

Entretanto, verifica-se uma enorme lacuna de financiamento para a cozinha limpa. Apesar de os combustíveis de cozinha poluidores causarem milhões de mortes prematuras todos os anos e constituírem o segundo fator que mais contribui para as alterações climáticas depois do dióxido de carbono, somente 133,5 milhões de dólares em financiamento para soluções de cozinha limpa foram registados em 2019. Este valor está francamente longe da estimativa de 4,5 mil milhões de dólares de investimento anual necessário para alcançar o acesso universal à cozinha limpa (considerando apenas os custos de fogões limpos).

Estas conclusões foram reveladas a escassas semanas da realização da COP26 em Glasgow, onde os líderes globais irão debater formas de alcançar progressos significativos na luta contra as alterações climáticas. No âmbito destes esforços, terão de encontrar formas de reduzir as emissões globais do setor energético, aumentando em simultâneo o acesso à energia nos países em desenvolvimento a fim de promover o seu desenvolvimento económico.

“Encontramo-nos num momento crítico dos debates sobre as alterações climáticas. O que está claro é que o caminho para o zero líquido só pode concretizar-se com uma transição energética justa e equitativa que ofereça acesso a energia limpa e economicamente acessível aos 759 milhões de pessoas que não têm acesso a eletricidade e aos 2,6 mil milhões de pessoas que não têm acesso a soluções de cozinha limpa”, declarou Damilola Ogunbiyi, Diretora Executiva e Representante Especial do Secretário-Geral da ONU para a Energia Sustentável para Todos e Copresidente da ONU-Energia. “Isto exige recursos que mitiguem as alterações climáticas e criem novas oportunidades para impulsionar o crescimento económico e permitir que as pessoas de qualquer ponto do mundo alcancem o seu pleno desenvolvimento. A Energizing Finance apresenta dados concretos sobre os atuais compromissos de financiamento da energia e o financiamento de que os países necessitam para alcançar as metas de energia do ODS7.”

Em 2018, metade do financiamento total da eletricidade foi canalizada para combustíveis fósseis ligados à rede nos países de alto impacto, em comparação com 25% em 2019. Apesar de esta ser uma tendência positiva para o clima, o investimento registado em tecnologias não ligadas à rede e minirredes também caiu e representava apenas 0,9% do financiamento registado em eletricidade.

A Dra. Barbara Buchner, Diretora-Geral Global da CPI, que estabeleceu uma parceria com a SEforALL para o relatório Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2021, declarou: “Alcançar tanto o Acordo de Paris como o acesso universal à energia exige um investimento muito maior em energias renováveis ligadas à rede e soluções não ligadas à rede e minirredes do que tem sido registado pela Energizing Finance. Estas soluções são essenciais para ajudar os países de alto impacto a desenvolverem as suas economias sem terem de depender dos combustíveis fósseis.”

Para dar a conhecer melhor os desafios que os países de alto impacto enfrentam, a segunda publicação da série, Energizing Finance: Taking the Pulse 2021, oferece uma visão pormenorizada do volume estimado e do tipo de financiamento de que as empresas e os clientes necessitam para alcançar o acesso universal à energia tanto para a eletricidade como para a cozinha limpa até 2030 em Moçambique, no Gana e no Vietname. É também de destacar o facto de ilustrar os desafios ligados à acessibilidade económica à energia que as pessoas enfrentam nestes países e a necessidade de apoio financeiro para os consumidores, sob a forma de subsídios, por exemplo.

O relatório conclui que a disponibilização de acesso a combustíveis e tecnologias limpos, ou seja, soluções modernas de energia para cozinhar, no Gana, Moçambique e no Vietname irá custar um total de 37 a 48 mil milhões de dólares até 2030, 70% dos quais serão canalizados para os combustíveis (por exemplo, GPL, etanol e eletricidade). Um cenário mais fácil de alcançar seria um em que os três países garantissem o acesso universal a fogões melhorados por um custo total de 1,05 mil milhões de dólares até 2030.

“O Gana, Moçambique e o Vietname enfrentam desafios diferentes no que se refere a alcançar o acesso universal à eletricidade e à cozinha limpa”, afirmou Aly-Khan Jamal, Sócio da Dalberg Advisors, que estabeleceu uma parceria com a SEforALL para o relatório Energizing Finance: Taking the Pulse 2021. “Este estudo analisa em profundidade estes contextos nacionais a fim de identificar soluções que possam tornar o Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 7 uma realidade.”

Oferecer um financiamento baseado nos resultados aos responsáveis de projetos de energia e explorar políticas que facilitem o apoio aos subsídios do lado da procura e reduzam os impostos sobre os sistemas solares residenciais são algumas das várias recomendações políticas apresentadas para o Gana, Moçambique e o Vietname.

A Energizing Finance defende também uma maior inovação nos instrumentos financeiros para alcançar a escala de financiamento necessária para o acesso universal à cozinha limpa; a integração do acesso à eletricidade, o acesso à cozinha e estratégias de luta contra as alterações climáticas; e que os governos nacionais, os doadores bilaterais, as organizações filantrópicas e as instituições de financiamento do desenvolvimento aumentem os seus esforços para mobilizar capital comercial para os países da África Subsariana.

Mais conclusões-chave e recomendações dos relatórios são disponibilizadas aqui.

Notas para a imprensa

Contactos

Para mais informações sobre os relatórios ou pedidos de entrevista, queira contactar: Sherry Kennedy, Sustainable Energy for All: Sherry.Kennedy@SEforALL.org / media@seforall.org ou +43 676 846 727 237

Acerca da Sustainable Energy for All

A Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) é uma organização internacional que trabalha em parceria com as Nações Unidas e os dirigentes governamentais, o setor privado, as instituições financeiras, a sociedade civil e as organizações filantrópicas para apelar a uma implementação mais rápida de medidas que visam alcançar o Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 7 (ODS7) – acesso a energia economicamente acessível, fiável, sustentável e moderna para todos até 2030 –, em linha com o Acordo de Paris sobre as alterações climáticas. A SEforALL desenvolve esforços para garantir uma transição energética limpa que não deixe ninguém para trás e ofereça novas oportunidades para que todos possam concretizar o seu potencial.

A SEforALL é liderada por Damilola Ogunbiyi, Diretora Executiva e Representante Especial do Secretário-Geral da ONU para a Energia Sustentável para Todos e Copresidente da ONU-Energia. Pode segui-la no Twitter @DamilolaSDG7. Para mais informações, siga @SEforALLorg.

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Globeleq acquiert une centrale solaire Égyptienne

LONDRES et LE CAIRE , 14 octobre 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Globeleq, le principal producteur indépendant d’électricité en Afrique, a finalisé l’acquisition de la centrale solaire photovoltaïque de 66 MWc d’ARC for Renewable Energy S.A.E (ARC) située dans le parc solaire de Benban près d’Assouan, en Égypte. https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/612609/GLobeleq_Logo.jpg

La centrale ARC a été développée par le consortium SECI Energia, Enerray et Desert Technologies dans le cadre du deuxième round du programme de tarifs de rachat du gouvernement égyptien. La centrale a été mise en service le 4 novembre 2019 et fournit de l’électricité propre à l’Egyptian Electricity and Transmission Company (EETC) dans le cadre d’un contrat d’achat d’électricité de 25 ans. Le projet a été financé par la Société Financière Internationale (SFI), l’actionnaire de Globeleq, CDC Group (CDC), la Banque Asiatique d’Investissement pour les Infrastructures (BAII), Europe Arab Bank et Finance in Motion.

En tant que seul propriétaire d’ARC, Globeleq se chargera également de la gestion de l’actif et supervisera l’entreprise chargée de l’exploitation et de la maintenance, GILA Al Tawakol. Au cours du processus d’acquisition, Globeleq a aidé les développeurs d’origine et les prêteurs à obtenir le certificat final de prise en charge (« Take-Over Certificate ») dans le cadre des contrats EPC et à s’assurer que le projet fonctionne de manière optimale. ARC sera connecté au centre de conduite des énergies renouvelables de Globeleq au Cap en Afrique du Sud et bénéficiera de la vaste expérience de son équipe d’exploitation basée en Afrique, complétée par une équipe basée au Caire et à Assouan. L’équipe locale sera dirigée par Ghada Darwish en tant que responsable Égypte à Globeleq.

L’Égypte est l’un des plus grands marchés pour les projets d’énergie renouvelable en Afrique et vise à achever 42% de production d’électricité à partir de sources renouvelables d’ici 2035. Le pays est un marché cible clé pour Globeleq et cette acquisition fournit une plateforme pour soutenir d’autres investissements dans le pays, notamment dans le photovoltaïque, l’éolien, le stockage d’énergie par batterie et, à plus long terme, le dessalement d’eau de mer et l’hydrogène vert.

Mike Scholey, PDG de Globeleq, a indiqué : « Cette transaction est une excellente opportunité d’acquérir un actif opérationnel avec une équipe établie. Le gouvernement égyptien a fixé des objectifs ambitieux en matière d’énergies renouvelables et, en tant que l’un des plus grands investisseurs dans ce domaine en Afrique, nous sommes heureux d’aider l’Égypte à déployer davantage de projets d’énergies renouvelables ».

L’ambassadeur britannique en Égypte, Gareth Bayley OBE, a déclaré : « Je suis heureux de constater l’engagement de Globeleq sur le marché égyptien des énergies renouvelables. Alors que le Royaume-Uni s’apprête à accueillir, dans deux semaines à peine, la COP26, une conférence historique sur le changement climatique, des investissements comme celui-ci mettent en lumière la croissance verte, au cœur du programme commercial du Royaume-Uni.  Nous continuerons à soutenir l’ambitieuse stratégie énergétique durable de l’Égypte. Félicitations à Globeleq pour cette étape importante, et je me réjouis de voir beaucoup d’autres investissements britanniques de grande valeur et de haut niveau dans le secteur égyptien des énergies renouvelables à l’avenir ».

Bertrand de La Borde, responsable mondial de l’énergie et des mines à la SFI, a commenté l’événement : « En tant qu’investisseur stratégique à long terme ayant d’excellentes performances opérationnelles dans le domaine des énergies renouvelables, nous soutenons pleinement l’acquisition menée par Globeleq. L’entreprise continue de créer des entreprises d’énergie durables, qui soutiennent les objectifs de développement durable des Nations Unies en investissant dans une production renouvelable et compétitive ».

Holger Rothenbusch, directeur général et responsable des infrastructures et du climat de CDC Group, a déclaré : « L’engagement de Globeleq à augmenter l’offre d’énergie renouvelable à travers l’Afrique est vital et nous sommes fiers d’emprunter cette voie ensemble. L’acquisition d’ARC a permis d’achever la construction de l’usine, d’obtenir des performances optimales et de bénéficier de la présence d’un investisseur stratégique à long terme ayant fait ses preuves en Afrique.

Globeleq joue un rôle clé dans le déblocage de l’énorme potentiel renouvelable de l’Afrique. L’entreprise investit dans le secteur depuis 2002 et, depuis 2014, exploite certaines des toutes premières centrales solaires et éoliennes à grande échelle en Afrique du Sud. Globeleq poursuit son expansion et possède et exploite actuellement neuf projets solaires photovoltaïques et éoliens sur le continent. L’entreprise est sur le point de mettre en service sa centrale solaire de 52 MWc à Malindi, au Kenya, et a récemment donné le coup d’envoi d’un projet de solaire photovoltaïque avec stockage d’énergie par batterie de 19 MWc et 2 MW /7 MWh au Mozambique, où elle s’est également préqualifiée pour un appel d’offres solaire et développe deux nouveaux projets éoliens.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/612609/GLobeleq_Logo.jpg

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Globeleq Acquires Egyptian Solar Plant

LONDON and CAIRO, Oct. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Globeleq, the leading independent power company in Africa, has completed the acquisition of the ARC for Renewable Energy S.A.E (ARC) 66 MWp solar PV plant located at the Benban Solar Park near Aswan, Egypt.

Globeleq - Powering Africa's Growth

The ARC plant was developed by the SECI Energia, Enerray and Desert Technologies consortium as part of the second round of the Egyptian government’s feed-in-tariff program. It achieved commercial operation on 4 November 2019 and provides clean electricity to the Egyptian Electricity and Transmission Company (EETC) under a 25-year power purchase agreement. The project was financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Globeleq’s shareholder, CDC Group (CDC), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Europe Arab Bank and Finance in Motion.

Globeleq will also provide ARC with asset management services and oversee the operation and maintenance contractor, GILA Al Tawakol. During the acquisition process, Globeleq supported the original developers and lenders to achieve the final take over certificate under the EPC contracts and ensure the project performs optimally. ARC will be connected to Globeleq’s remote monitoring centre in Cape Town, South Africa, and will benefit from the extensive experience of its African based operations team and complemented by a talented team based in Cairo and Aswan.  The local team will be led by Ghada Darwish as Country Manager.

Egypt is one of the largest markets for renewable energy projects in Africa and aims to have 42% of renewable generation by 2035. The country is as a key target market for Globeleq and this acquisition provides a platform to support further investments in the country, including in solar PV, wind, battery energy storage and, in the longer-term, water desalination and green hydrogen projects.

Mike Scholey, CEO of Globeleq indicated: “This transaction is an excellent opportunity to acquire an operational asset with an established team. The Egyptian government has set ambitious renewable energy targets and, as one of the largest investors in renewable power in Africa, we are pleased to support Egypt to deploy more renewable energy projects.”

The British Ambassador to Egypt, Gareth Bayley OBE, said: “I am pleased to see Globeleq’s commitment to the Egyptian renewable energy market. As the UK prepares to host, in just two weeks, the landmark COP26 Climate Change Conference, investments like this shine a light on clean growth, at the heart of the UK’s trade agenda.  We will continue our support for Egypt’s ambitious sustainable energy strategy. Congratulations to Globeleq on this important milestone, and I look forward to seeing many more high-value and high-profile UK investments in Egypt’s renewable energy sector in future.”

Bertrand de La Borde, Global Head Energy & Mining at IFC commented: “As a long-term strategic investor with excellent operational performance in renewable energy, we are fully supportive of Globeleq’s acquisition. The company continues to create sustainable energy businesses, which support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, through investment in affordable, renewable generation.”

Holger Rothenbusch, Managing Director and Head Infrastructure and Climate, CDC Group said: “Globeleq’s commitment to increasing the supply of renewable energy across Africa is vital and we are proud to be on this journey together. The acquisition of ARC ensured the plant reached completion, achieved optimal performance and benefits from the presence of a long-term strategic investor with extensive track record in Africa.

Globeleq is playing a key role in unlocking Africa’s huge renewable potential. The company has invested in the sector since 2002, and since 2014, has operated some of the very first large-scale solar and wind plants in South Africa. Globeleq continues to expand and currently majority owns and operates nine solar PV and wind projects across the continent. It is nearing completion of its 52MWp Malindi solar plant in Kenya and recently broke ground on a 19MWp solar plus 2MW (7MWh) battery energy storage project in Mozambique, where it also prequalified for a solar tender and is developing two new wind projects.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/612609/GLobeleq_Logo.jpg

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Mattermost Launches New Project and Workflow Management Solutions for Developers

Open source collaboration platform delivers alternatives to tools like Slack, Trello, and Notion to help R&D teams improve productivity and accelerate digital operations

Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mattermost, Inc. today announced several new additions to its open source project at KubeCon® + CloudNativeCon North America 2021, launching and integrating modern project and workflow management solutions into its popular developer collaboration platform. Built for technical teams, Mattermost now provides flexible alternatives to tools like Slack®, Trello®, and Notion® through a unified platform for increased collaboration and productivity across a wide range of software development processes — from sprint planning and release management to incident resolution and retrospectives.

With heightened awareness around the urgency for remote collaboration and modernization of enterprise processes, developers have been increasingly asked to circumvent fragile processes, talent shortages, and security risks to deliver performance, innovation, and digital operations at scale. The newest update to the core Mattermost® platform emphasizes the complexities of these staggering objectives and the need for dynamic solutions that empower R&D teams with autonomy, flexibility, and security.

The launch of Mattermost’s modern project and workflow management solutions also reflects the company’s evolution beyond secure messaging to enable team alignment and operational agility across sophisticated R&D use cases. Unlike general collaboration products, the Mattermost platform now allows developers to contribute directly to its solutions and customize their workspaces to adapt to their preferred team processes. Mattermost also provides teams with the option to deploy on-premise or in a secure cloud instance. This gives companies more control over their data and assists them in meeting stringent security and privacy compliance standards such as those found in HIPAA, FINRA, GDPR, country-specific data sovereignty, and other regulatory requirements.

“As organizations navigate the shift to always-on digital operations, teams that effectively align their people, tools, and processes across each stage of the development lifecycle are increasing their velocity, improving delivery and gaining a strategic advantage,” said Ian Tien, co-founder and CEO of Mattermost. “With developers reporting that nearly 40% of their workweek is wasted due to tool fragmentation, manual tasks, fragile workflows, and service-impacting incidents and outages, we see a huge opportunity to help every R&D team in the world improve their operations and productivity with collaboration solutions built specifically for the way they work.”

Founded in 2016, Mattermost has powered over 800,000 developer workspaces worldwide and has a community of over 4,000 open source contributors who have updated the platform over 30,000 times since its initial release. Mattermost’s commercial offerings are used by over 800 organizations, including European Parliament, NASA, Nasdaq, Samsung, SAP, the United States Air Force, and Wealthfront.

“Mattermost has been unimaginably effective for our company and continues to exceed expectations with every new release,” said Daniel Gover, IT system administrator for Crossover Health. “The platform helps us ensure that we’re staying HIPAA-compliant while letting our clinicians collaborate efficiently and seamlessly.”

“Developer velocity is increasingly essential to driving digital operations and modernization across the enterprise,” said Paul Nashawaty, senior analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group. “Mattermost is helping to meet this requirement with a collaboration platform that reduces context switching and delivers visibility and control across the developer workflow and toolchain.”

This update to the Mattermost platform is now available to all users and features enhanced navigation and multiple tightly integrated collaboration tools, including:

Channels: The foundation of the Mattermost platform, Channels bring all of your team’s communication into one place, so you have complete visibility and control. Channels come with team messaging, conferencing, and file sharing features beyond general-purpose collaboration, including slash commands, code syntax highlighting, rich Markdown formatting, code snippets, and bot integrations.

Playbooks: Playbooks are prescribed workflows that streamline complex, recurring processes. Playbooks run side-by-side with Channels and make any structured process repeatable and predictable using checklists, triggers, automation, and tool integrations. Continuous improvement is built into each playbook with learnings and retrospectives.

Boards: Boards are Kanban-style task and project management solutions with clearly defined tasks, owners, checklists, and deadlines. Boards help teams increase transparency and keep all resources readily available, including documents, images, and links, and are used to help teams achieve project milestones and manage projects and tasks of any size.

Connections: Connections are integrations and extensions with leading developer tools, including GitHub®, Jenkins®, Circle CI®, GitLab®, Jira®, PagerDuty®, and ServiceNow®. Connections allow developers to turn any Channel into a CLI through built-in or custom commands to execute actions directly, such as posting to Channels, listening for new messages with incoming and outgoing webhooks. Developers can build Connections through custom apps, open APIs, plugins, and webhooks. The Mattermost App Framework allows developers to define custom interactive add-ons that support web, mobile, and desktop clients without changes. Apps can be written in any language, deployed on any HTTP server, or hosted as an AWS Lambda function.

Controls: Controls provide extensive data protection, information governance, eDiscovery, enterprise information archiving support, and identity/access management. Controls give administrators the ability to set granular permissions to control access to sensitive data and can be customized to meet your specific compliance requirements with fine-grained data retention, audit logs, the ability to programmatically archive and export records, and integration with Global Relay and Smarsh/Actiance for compliance, archiving, and analytics. Deployment options are available in on-prem or secure cloud environments to meet the strict requirements of GDPR, AICPA, CCPA, FINRA, HIPAA, and more.

To learn more about Mattermost’s developer collaboration platform, attendees can find the team at booth #S12 at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021, or please visit the Mattermost Blog.

About Mattermost:

Mattermost is an open source platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle. Hundreds of thousands of developers around the globe trust Mattermost to increase their productivity by bringing together team communication, task and project management, and workflow orchestration into a unified platform for agile software development.

Founded in 2016, Mattermost’s open source platform powers over 800,000 workspaces worldwide with the support of over 4,000 contributors from across the developer community. The company serves over 800 customers, including European Parliament, NASA, Nasdaq, Samsung, SAP, United States Air Force and Wealthfront, and is backed by world-class investors including Battery Ventures, Redpoint, S28 Capital, YC Continuity. To learn more, visit www.mattermost.com.

Mattermost and the Mattermost logo are registered trademarks of Mattermost, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Jeff Benanto
Mattermost
5083619001
jeff.benanto@mattermost.com