At the Africa Renewables Investment Summit (ARIS), that took place in Cape Town, South Africa, Empower New Energy, a Norwegian solar development and investment company, signed a landmark agreement to raise US$74mn from a consortium led by Climate Fund Managers (CFM), manager of Climate Investor One (CIO)
The partnership will develop, finance, own and operate an initial 150MW of solar project on the continent over the next three years. This will see Empower become one of the leading renewable investment platform companies serving the C&I market in target markets on the continent.
“This new investment capital will enable Empower and our project partners to solarise more than 50 African companies, reducing electricity costs and CO2 emissions and creating thousands of local jobs. This is the largest single capital raise in Africa’s solar C&I market so far,” said Terje Osmundsen, founder and CEO of Empower New Energy.
Norfund is investing US$12.5mn in this capital raise and the investor consortium is joined by Janeiro Energy AS, an investment company partly owned by Svein Harald Øygard, a profiled Norwegian economist and investor.
Empower and its investors have agreed to earmark 1% of the revenues generated by the projects for a community development programme, focused on projects that can deliver high impact in socially disadvantaged communities in targeted markets.
