wiredinUSA November 2014

INDEX

Sri Lankan copper fighting imports

Renewable investments

Russian subsea connection

Hybrid plant

Egypt-based investment bank EFG Hermes has made its first investment beyond the borders of the Middle East and Africa with the acquisition of a 49 percent stake in EDPR France. The $208 million investment will give the bank a stake in EDPR France's portfolio of 33 operational wind farms with a combined capacity of 334MW. The transaction also marks the launch of a new direct investment strategy by the bank and a growing interest in renewable energy. The deal is EFG Hermes’s second in the renewable energy sector within a year, following an earlier commitment via the InfraMed fund to establish the Arab world’s first utility-scale wind farm in Jordan. Under the terms of the agreement, EFG Hermes’s private equity arm will manage the investment vehicle, while EDPR Francewill retain operational control over the acquired assets. EDPR France has a 15-year feed-in tariff arrangement with Électricité Réseau Distribution France for the energy generated by the wind farms.

Huawei Marine is to manufacture subsea cable, and other wet plant, for the Far East submarine systemunder a turnkey contract between Huawei Marine and Rostelecom. The multi-million dollar investment will enhance communications for the far east region of Russia, and provide high capacity connectivity across the Sea of Okhotsk. The repeatered system, over 1,900km long, will be deployed in two segments, the first linking Okha in Sakhalin Island with Ola in Magadan, and then on to Ust-Bolsheretsk in Kamchatka which currently relies on satellite infrastructure. Each segment of the Far East submarine cable system will have an initial 2-fiber pairs lit, and is designed to have a capacity of 1.6Tbps. The project is due for completion in late 2015.

Work on a 5MW pilot station for both solar and wind energy is expected to start in southern Bahrain within the next three months. According to a report in the Gulf Daily News, the station will be built on 120,000 square miles of land near the Al Dur Power and Water Plant. The new plant is among efforts by the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) to develop renewable energy sources, and will be linked to Bahrain’s power distribution grid by the first quarter of 2015. A tender has already been issued, and the minister of state for electricity and water affairs, Dr Abdulhussain Mirza, said a company specializing in renewable energy plants will be awarded the project before the end of the year.

Orange Electric claims that a significant shortage of copper scrap is blocking growth in Sri Lanka. In an attempt to solve the problem, the manufacturer has establishedacopper scrap recyclingplant. Situated in Colombo, the new plant is said to be capable of processing “all the copper waste available in the country” (estimated at 200 tonnes per month) which has the potential to meet over 20 percent of domestic copper wire demand. It has been estimated that the facility could achieve a foreign exchange saving of $16 million. According to Kushan Kodituwakku, Orange Electric's managing director, the shortage of copper is interfering with the everyday business opportunities of traditional and small industries across Sri Lanka and that despite a government ban, Sri Lanka has been exporting copper waste to India and Japan. Customs reports state that Sri Lanka has imported over 67,000 tonnes of copper wire andcablesince2007.Kodituwakkubelieves that readily available domestic copper scrap would result in a higher-grade cable than the imported scrap can produce.

ASIA / AFRICA NEWS

wiredInUSA - November 2014

wiredInUSA - November 2014

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