Energy giant General Electric (GE) has signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the China National Machinery Industry (Sinomach) for the development of renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Under the terms of the MoU, the firms will develop, invest in and finance clean energy projects under the Power Africa initiative, which was launched by the US President Barack Obama in 2013.
The deal is a part of the partners’ effort to double availability of energy in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, where over two-thirds of the population face power crisis.
Sinomach chairman Ren Hongbin said: "Sinomach is building core strength in technology and operations to speed up its transformation from a traditional State owned enterprise to a truly competitive global player.
"Partnership with GE proves to be strategically valuable for our sustainable success in emerging market like Africa."
The MoU represents an extension of their collaborative effort to develop energy infrastructure projects in emerging market with an investment of $2bn.
GE and Sinomach earlier partnered for the development of $3bn energy infrastructure projects across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
GE Greater China president and CEO Rachel Duan said: "As the partner of choice for China infrastructure exporters, GE aims to forge win-win collaboration model to secure long term success across globe.
"GE-Sinomach collaboration will cover broad spectrum of domains to allow our partner to truly benefit from GE’s technology, global outreach and execution insights."
The MoU also includes development of 102MW Kipeto wind power project in Kajiado, 80km south of Nairobi, to help contribute the Kenya Government’s aim to have 2,036MW of wind power generation capacity by 2030.
Featuring 47 of GE’s 1.6-100 wind turbines and 16 of its 1.6-82.5 wind turbines, the wind project will receive funding from the state-owned development finance institution Overseas Private Investment (OPIC) in the US.
Image: The 102MW Kenya wind project will feature 47 GE 1.6-100 wind turbines. Photo: courtesy of Kenya Power.