Standard Bank and British International Investment (BII) have partnered with Scatec and H1 Holdings to reach financial close on the first sizable battery energy storage and photovoltaic (PV) solar project in South Africa – Africa’s largest and South Africa’s first baseload renewable energy project, uniquely powered entirely by renewable sources
This is the first project to reach financial close under the government’s risk mitigation independent power producer procurement programme (RMIPPPP), with Standard Bank acting as the mandated lead arranger and underwriter to provide debt funding. BII, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI), is acting as the lead bank. Alongside this, the DFI is providing an additional equity investment of mezzanine financing to H1 Holdings, a broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) company and an investor in the project.
The project will provide total solar power capacity of 540MW photovoltaics and 1.1GWh of battery energy storage (BESS) – delivering reliable clean power into South Africa’s grid. The project will contribute toward solving the country’s power challenges, which have been especially crippling this winter as South Africa continues to undergo prolonged power cuts.
“This is not only about ensuring a reliable supply of power to citizens and a growing economy, but also in ensuring that we meet our obligations as a nation to reduce carbon emissions by bringing more clean energy onto the grid,” said Rentia van Tonder, head of power at Standard Bank.
“BII is proud to back a project at the forefront of renewable energy technology that has the potential to be scaled commercially,” said Iain Macaulay, director and head of project finance, Africa and Pakistan, BII.
