How Africa's fastest solar power project is lighting up Rwanda

 “Arise, shine for your light has come,” reads a sign at the entrance to the first major solar power farm in east Africa.
The 8.5 megawatt (MW) power plant in Rwanda is designed so that, from a bird’s-eye view, it resembles the shape of the African continent. “Right now we’re in Somalia,” jokes Twaha Twagirimana, the plant supervisor, during a walkabout of the 17-hectare site.
The plant is also evidence, not only of renewable energy’s increasing affordability, but how nimble it can be. The $23.7m (£15.6m) solar field went from contract signing to construction to connection in just a year, defying sceptics of Africa’s ability to realise projects fast.

The setting is magnificent amid Rwanda’s famed green hills, within view of Lake Mugesera, 60km east of the capital, Kigali. Some 28,360 solar panels sit in neat rows above wild grass where inhabitants include puff adders. Tony Blair and Bono have recently taken the tour.
From dawn till dusk the computer-controlled photovoltaic panels, each 1.9 sq metres, tilt to track the sun from east to west, improving efficiency by 20% compared to stationary panels. The panels are from China while the inverters and transformers are from Germany.

The plant’s construction has created 350 local jobs and increased Rwanda’s generation capacity by 6%, powering more than 15,000 homes. All this is crucial in an economy that, 21 years after the genocide, is expanding fast and aims to give half its population access to electricity by 2017.
Twagirimana, one of five full-time staff on-site, said: “The Rwandan government is in desperate need of energy. In 2013 they only had 110 megawatts. They wanted solar to increase capacity.”
The government agreed to a joint bid by Gigawatt Global, Norfund and Scatec Solar, backed by Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative. Construction began in February 2014 and was finished by July. “It’s the fastest project in Africa.”

Its first year produced an estimated 15 million kilowatt hours, sending power to a substation 9km away, which has prompted mixed views in local communities. Twagirimana, 32, explained: “The neighbours say they want energy direct from here because they think it would be cheaper. It’s not true. We sell to the utility. Even our building gets power from the grid.”
The solar field is linked to a central server in Oslo and can be monitored remotely via the internet. Twagirimana believes it could be a template for the continent. “We have plenty of sun. Some are living in remote areas where there is no energy. Solar will be the way forward for African countries.”

The project is built on land owned by the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, whose mission is to care for Rwanda’s most vulnerable children orphaned before and after the genocide. This lease provides the biggest source of income to the six-year-old village, currently home to 512 young people who are offered schooling and extracurricular activities.

 Jean-Claude Nkulikiyimfura, director of the village, said: “The project is probably the fastest: in less than a year it was up and going. It’s bringing a lot of visits from anyone interested in project development, and it brings some visibility for us. It’s something quite unique and we’re proud to be partners in it.”
Some of the village’s young people have received training at the solar site and one worked on the project. Other spin-offs have included a partnership to make solar panels for 250,000 homes. Nkulikiyimfura, 40, added: “Renewable energy is the way to go and we’re really proud to have it here. It shows what’s really possible when government works with the public and private sectors.”

One village member, 18-year-old Bella Kabatesi, who lost her parents to illness when she was four, has used solar power to design a night light at a memorial to the village’s late founder. “The big solar plant is going to help the people and the country because it’s cheaper than main electrical power,” she said.
Rwanda has been both criticised for trampling on human rights and praised for its unswerving focus on development and getting things done. Chaim Motzen, Gigawatt Global’s co-founder and managing director, and a solar industry pioneer in Israel, said: “Rwanda had 110 megawatts on the grid for a population of 12 million people; Israel has 13,000 megawatts for 8 million people. There was a desperate need for more energy.

“Rwanda has an excellent business environment – no corruption – and that played a role. I also think they were serious about wanting to move quickly. We had good partners on the ground. It’s now being used as a model: you can do energy deals quickly and get things done. It’s a catalyst for future projects in Rwanda and hopefully not just in Rwanda to inspire others to do what we’re doing.”
Solar energy is a key element in Africa’s future, Motzen believes. “Is it the only solution? No, because solar is intermittent. But will it be a major part of the solution? I believe it will.”

Yosef Abramowitz, president of Gigawatt Global, told a US government delegation and Bono at a site visit in August: “We have decoupled GDP growth from emissions growth. What you have heard is that we are 6% of a country’s generation capacity without adding any emissions. It is a false choice in Paris [the climate summit] and this is the proof test to be able to break that deadlock so that the world can go solar.”

How Could Paris Climate Talks Change Africa’s Future?

The UN meeting will focus on developed countries’ plans to curb global warming, but it could give Africa money to embrace clean energy.
 “It’s never been like this before,” said senior park ranger Solomzi Radebe, who’s been giving tours here for 15 years. Unless a lot of rain falls soon, he said, the lethal clashes could cause herds to disappear.

The drought, South Africa’s worst in decades, has prompted farmers to pray for the heavens to open up and for Johannesburg to impose water restrictions such as three-minute showers. It could get worse. A landmark UN report says rising temperatures will “amplify existing stress on water availability” in Africa—a continent that’s contributed little to climate change but is reeling from its impacts.

A new round of climate talks, slated to begin November 30 in Paris, aims to address this. Countries have pledged to cut their planet-warming emissions of greenhouse gases. Richer nations have also pledged $100 billion a year to help poorer ones adapt to climate change and adopt clean sources of energy.

“Africa could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of COP21,” UN’s Vincent Kitio said at National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge forum this month in Johannesburg on sub-Saharan Africa’s future. Kitio was referring to the Paris talks, known as COP21 because they’re the 21st meeting of the Conference of Parties—nations that make up the UN Framework on Climate Change.

Other forum participants agreed. “It’s a huge opportunity for Africa,” said Joanne Yawitch, CEO of National Business Initiative, a group of companies seeking sustainable growth. She said the climate funds could enable the region to “leapfrog” development, skipping dirtier fossil fuels in favor of zero-carbon power sources such as solar and wind and a diverse energy mix.

A Withering Challenge

The shift won’t come easy. Almost half of sub-Saharan Africans live in extreme poverty with daily incomes of less than $1.25, and two of every three people—a whopping 620 million—live without electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. Only in a handful of countries such as South Africa, which relies mostly on coal, do at least half of the people have access to the grid.

“The scale of the problem is so huge that it’s difficult to get across the finish line,” said David Bowers, vice president of Africa Finance Corporation, adding that both small and large projects are needed.

Consider this: Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 13 percent of the world’s population but only 4 percent of global energy demand and resulting carbon emissions. “African countries have contributed the least to carbon climate change,” David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute’s International Climate Initiative, said in an interview.

Still, they’re suffering the consequences. In recent decades, drought has repeatedly decimated crops and caused massive starvation as well as upheaval. In a May speech, President Barack Obama linked the dryness to violence: “Severe drought helped to create the instability in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram.”

The challenges could intensify. “You have a perfect storm,” said Chris Funk,  research director of the Climate Hazards Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara, referring to the potent mix of rising temperatures, increasing dryness, and a fast-growing population.

Climate scientists don’t blame all drought on global warming, but they do find a nexus in certain regions. Columbia University researchers reported in October that the Horn of Africa, which includes Ethiopia and Somalia, is drying at an unusually fast pace and will continue to do so with rising carbon emissions.

Similarly, in a study released earlier this month, Funk’s team found that climate change helped cause the severe drought in East Africa last year. Looking at current weather data, Funk said it’s now doing the same in South Africa.

Climate impacts are exacerbating other obstacles to prosperity in Africa, including corruption, political instability, and a lack of transparency, said several of the forum’s two dozen participants.

A Continent of Possibilities

Yet Africa could be the envy of California. It’s vast—the size of the United States, China, India, and Europe combined—and sunny. In fact, it averages at least 320 days of bright sunlight each year. That exceeds averages for the Golden State, which now gets five percent of its electricity from solar power.

Al-Shabab wants IS to back off in East Africa

 
IS achieved a major boost in March this year when it won the loyalty of the main jihadi group in West Africa - Boko Haram, which is based in Nigeria, Africa's most populous state.
But East Africa - which has a longer history of militant Islamist activity - has so far remained out of its grasp, mainly because of the al-Shabab leadership's loyalty to al-Qaeda.

However, some cracks may be starting to appear in that unified position.
Last month Sheikh Abdulqadir Mumi, a prominent former "spiritual leader" and recruiter for al-Shabab, declared allegiance to IS from his base in the remote Galgala Mountains, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, located in north-eastern Somalia.

The move may turn out to be largely symbolic, given that reports indicate only 20 of Mumi's estimated 300 followers opted to switch sides, but it has at least given IS its first official outpost in East Africa.
For al-Qaeda, East Africa has always been a key frontier of jihad. Its most notorious attack, before it brought down the New York Twin Towers in 2001, was the simultaneous bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which left more than 200 people dead.
With al-Qaeda significantly weakened since the death of Osama Bin Laden, it has relied on al-Shabab to salvage its credibility in global jihadi circles.

Its attack on Kenya's Garissa University College in April, which killed about 150 people, provided a grim sequel to the Westgate shopping centre attack in September 2013, when at least 67 were killed in a daytime assault in the heart of the Kenyan capital.
These large-scale attacks made al-Shabab a prime target for recruitment by IS, a group which prefers its new members to have proven murderous credentials.
IS has embarked on a sleek propaganda campaign, where high definition videos not only show gruesome beheadings and public executions, but also depict a utopian view of life under the IS "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria: of people harvesting grapes in Raqqa or taking a dip in Mosul's public swimming pool.

This is a tactic - one that al-Shabab has itself copied - to attract jihadists from around the world.
IS has even co-opted Boko Haram, its new affiliate in Africa, to urge Somali militants to join its ranks as part of the Nigerian group's own propaganda machine.
For the most part so far, al-Shabab's leaders have not been swayed by IS attempts to woo them.
They have banned any discussion relating to the group and have detained perceived IS sympathisers in southern and central Somalia, including two senior commanders and some foreign fighters, according to pro al-Shabab media.

The group has also said it would treat defectors as enemies.
Internal tensions have already started to spill over in some cases, with local media reporting at least nine militants killed in fighting earlier this month between two rival al-Shabab factions in southern Somalia.
The repeated warnings from the jihadist group's leaders against defections suggest they see IS as a genuine threat to their own standing and ability to recruit.
Although al-Shabab has carried out big attacks outside its borders - especially on Kenya which has troops on the ground as part of an African Union mission backing the Somali government - the group's priorities are still mainly domestic.

IS advocates global expansion and domination, an ideology that does not sit well with al-Shabab leaders, who would rather focus on matters closer to home.
While the group is happy to take on foreign fighters who serve their own purpose, the idea of taking orders from leaders outside Somalia is not something the al-Shabab hierarchy is keen on.
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has held up reports of factionalism within al-Shabab as a sign of the group's weakness, but it still holds large swathes of territory in the central and southern regions of the country, and continues to launch deadly attacks in the capital Mogadishu.

There is no doubt that al-Shabab, whatever internal wrangling is currently going on, remains a deadly force within Somalia and in neighbouring Kenya.
If the IS propaganda campaign leads to more defections, it could declare a branch in East Africa, prompting a potentially devastating three-way war between IS, al-Shabab and the Somali government.
It would also herald the arrival of a more potent enemy for other East African governments.

Pope Francis in Africa

Pope Francis makes his first visit to Africa this week, starting on Wednesday when his delegation will visit Kenya, then Uganda and the Central African Republic.
During the five-day trip the pope is expected to deliver public masses, meet religious and political leaders and promote a message of reconciliation and unity.

But concerns have lingered over whether his visit to Central African Republic (CAR) will go ahead. The country is currently embroiled in a civil war between the predominantly Muslim Séléka rebel coalition and Christian government forces.
His visit there – where he will meet representatives from the Muslim community at mosque in the capital, Bangui – will make him the first pope to travel to an active war zone, according to Global Post.
Speculation over what the head of the Roman Catholic Church can achieve with this visit is being hotly debated online. From escalating religious tensions to pushing for LGBT equality, here are a few of the common themes being discussed.

Religious tensions

Christian militias in CAR have carried out attacks on the country’s Muslim population during the ongoing conflict, leading some people to question whether the pope’s visit could in fact escalate religious tensions.
Peter Fabricius, a security consultant at the South African-based Institute for Security Studies, argued that the pope should have planned a joint visit with a Muslim leader.
“It is a pity that Francis does not have a Muslim counterpart who could partner him on his missions of peace and reconciliation among religions,” he said.
“Nevertheless, by his highly active and increasingly visible political interventions around the world in the name of peace, reconciliation and mercy, Pope Francis may just still be inspiring and emboldening the leaders of other religions to follow his example.”
In Kenya, members of the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab killed 147 people at Garissa University College, allowing Muslims to go free but killing those who identified as Christian.
Kenyan blogger Daniel Ominde suggested the pope might transform other areas with his message of peace. “Frequent terror attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa and most recently Garissa University significantly drove down Kenya’s earnings from [tourism], the sector which was for a long time the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner.
“It is my hope that the pope will use this visit to remind the world that terror is a problem in Africa just like it is in the western world where hundreds of lives have also been lost,” Ominde wrote.
The blogger praised the pope’s “conciliatory agenda” and suggested that visiting regions with a high Muslim population “should provide him with an opportunity to reach out to Muslims, and set the stone rolling for a process of inter-religious unity in the fight against extremism.”

LGBT rights

On the issue of homosexuality, Ominde argued: “While we do not expect him to push for the legalisation of homosexuality, Pope Francis will almost definitely encourage African governments to deal with homosexuals in more a humane manner.”
Uganda is notorious for its tough laws criminalising homosexuality. In an interview in 2014 given shortly after signing a bill that made some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison, the country’s president Yoweri Museveni reportedly told CNN: “They’re disgusting. What sort of people are they?”
In CAR, homosexuality is not illegal, and the country has signed a UN statement committed to ending acts of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
However, according to the Library of Congress “public expressions of love” between persons of the same sex is punishable by six months to two years imprisonment or a fine, and there is currently no legal recognition of same-sex relationships.
In July 2013, Pope Francis showed understanding toward the LGBT community when he said: “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
But Emma Were Tinka’s tweet from Uganda, quoting the country’s Archbishop of Gulu, suggested senior religious figures would stand firm in their opposition.

Adele’s 25 Sells 2.3 Million Copies in 3 Days

American fans are saying “Hello” to Adele, buying up 2.3 million copies of her new album in its first three days on sale.

Adele’s album 25 is the second album to sell more than 2 million copies in a single week since the sales tracking began in 1991, Billboard reports,and it’s on track to beat the record.

The single-week sales record is currently held by *NSYNC for No Strings Attached, which sold 2,416,000 copies in the week it came out in 2000. Industry forecasters say Adele could blow past that with 2.9 million first-week copies.

25 was released on Nov. 20 and is Adele’s third studio album.

Thai military court charges Bangkok blast suspects

court in Thailand has charged two men police accused of carrying out a deadly August bombing at a Bangkok shrine that left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured.

The two, identified as Adem Karadag and Yusufu Miefaili, faced 10 charges on Tuesday in connection with the August 17 blast at Erawan Shrine.

Thai officials said there was no political or religious motive behind the attack.

They say the blast was revenge by a people-smuggling network against Thai authorities for breaking up their operation.

Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Bangkok, said there was no mention of terrorism in those charges.

"They have been very keen to avoid using the word terrorism" because of concern it could affect the country's tourism and foreign investments, he said.

The two have been held at an army base since their arrests in August and September. They are being tried at a military court, where cases of national security have been handled since the army seized power in a coup last May.

That raises "a lot of question marks about the process", our correspondent said, adding that access have been "very limited" although defence lawyers can go and visit.

Led by Apple and Chinese Brands, High Tech Smartphone Panel

Demand for LTPS TFT LCD shipments rose 30 percent in September 2015 to reach 51.6 million units, due to strong demand from Apple and Chinese brands. Total smartphone panel shipments grew 4 percent month over month to reach 160 million units in September 2015. While amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels continue to lead the smartphone display market, low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) TFT LCD panel shipment share is growing, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), the leading global source of critical information and insight. 
“TFT-LCD, based on a-Si substrate, has been the leading panel technology for mobile phones because it is easy to manufacture and costs less to produce than other display technologies. However, since Apple adopted LTPS for its popular iPhones, demand for the new technology has continued to increase,” said Brian Huh, senior analyst for IHS Technology. “While LTPS panels cost greater, they boast lower power consumption and higher resolution compared to a-Si LCD panels. Greater demand for higher definition screens, especially in China, has also increased the adoption of LTPS LCD mobile phone displays.” 
Based on the latest information in the IHS Smartphone Display Shipment Tracker, the market share for the a-Si TFT LCD panel fell 10 percent month over month, but the panel still comprised the majority of smartphone display shipments, reaching 79.6 million in September 2015. Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) panel shipments grew 7 percent to reach just 25 million units. 
As a point of differentiation in the smartphone display market, Samsung Electronics adopted AMOLED-based LTPS displays in 2009. At that time Samsung Display was not looking to expand its customer base because Samsung Electronics digested almost all of the company’s AMOLED capacity. However as Samsung Electronics’ AMOLED smartphone business began to decline last year, Samsung Display has been expanding its customer lineup. “Since the end of last year, Samsung Display has been actively and aggressively promoting AMOLED displays to other electronics companies, especially in China, and AMOLED panel shipments for Chinese brands have increased remarkably since September,” Huh said.