Standard Bank provides funding for Africa’s largest baseload renewable energy project
20 Jul 2022
This is the first project to reach financial close under the government’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP).
Standard Bank has been Scatec’s bank and partner since 2010 and acted as the sole mandated lead arranger and underwriter, as well as the sole derivative and hedge provider, for this R18-billion project costs including VAT . BII, the UK’s development finance institution, acted as the lead bank and provided a R2.2-billion senior debt investment, while the DFI is providing an additional equity investment of R445-million mezzanine financing to H1 Holdings, a broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) company and an investor in the project.
This project will play a significant role in solving South Africa’s energy crisis by providing total solar power capacity of 540 megawatts of photovoltaics (PV) and 1.1 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage systems (BESS). This will ensure that South Africa reduces its carbon emissions by bringing more clean energy onto the grid.