A leading South African bank is forecasting “exponential growth” for the country’s small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) market in the coming few years, having already committed to funding project pipelines worth more than R1-billion, mostly in the form of rooftop solar.

Nedbank CIB energy finance principal Duncan Abel tells Engineering News that the market has already expanded materially from close to zero only five years ago, in spite of ongoing regulatory uncertainty. Liberalisation of the grid, wheeling and battery storage will further fuel rapid growth, he asserts.

The bank is also a leading financier to South Africa’s utility-scale renewable energy programme, with over R35-billion committed to funding such projects.

The growth in SSEG has been underpinned by a sharp fall in the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology in particular, as well as a desire among South African companies for tariff certainty in a context of ongoing, above inflation, Eskom hikes and load-shedding.

In addition, many SSEG deployments, particularly those being undertaken by multinationals operating in South Africa, are increasingly motivated by internal decarbonisation targets and commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Abel says there is significant pent-up demand for small-scale deployments, which have hitherto been restricted mostly to sub-1 MW projects, owing to regulatory uncertainty regarding the licensing of larger plants.

Even absent any possible change to the regulations, Abel anticipates that demand will continue to increase strongly.

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The European Investment Bank has a draft policy currently being considered that would end all of their fossil fuel financing beyond 2020. The draft is due for a decision this fall.

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​IRENA and SEforALL and UNDP announce partnership in coordination with Green Climate Fund to advance low-carbon energy transition and raise climate ambition

New York, NY, 22 September 2019 – In response to country needs to mobilize low-carbon, climate-resilient investments, a new global public good announced today will aim to increase the flow of capital in developing countries to meet climate ambitions. The Climate Investment Platform (CIP) is an inclusive partnership welcoming all stakeholders from governments and international organizations to the private sector to scale-up climate action and translate ambitious national climate targets into concrete investments on the ground.
 
With energy accounting for two thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions, the platform’s first service line is dedicated to the global transition to clean energy. Other service lines, such as adaptation, land use, cities and infrastructure will be launched in the first quarter of 2020. By decluttering and streamlining support to developing countries, the platform aims to accelerate action and advance climate investment in developing countries. Progress will be presented at UNFCCC COP 25 in December 2019.

The service offered by the CIP covers four key building blocks along the climate finance value-chain: supporting governments to specify ambitious energy targets and scale up their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), establishing well-designed, implemented and enforced clean energy policies and regulations, financial de-risking of energy projects, and a market-place to connect clean energy investors and project sponsors.
 
“The Climate Investment Platform is a crucial initiative that will simplify access to climate finance. It will catalyze investment for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, supporting those most in need of climate action,” said Green Climate Fund Executive Director Yannick Glemarec.

“Renewable energy is the most effective and ready solution to rising carbon emissions. Together with energy efficiency, they can deliver 90 per cent of the emission reductions needed under the Paris Agreement, but investment and deployment must increase significantly,” said IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera. “This partnership combines the strengths of the respective organisations to deliver tailored, proactive policy and investment support to set the energy transformation on a climate-safe path.

  “Finance is the lynchpin to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 and countries’ Paris Agreement commitments. However, the evidence is clear that global investment is dramatically off track to meet universal access to energy by 2030,” said Rachel Kyte, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). “The Climate Investment Platform will help bridge the gap between supply and demand to accelerate capital and scale up climate resilient investments, allowing countries to raise their climate targets and develop policy environments that allow investment to flow.”

 “A powerful partnership of key institutions in the energy sector, the Climate Investment Platform will help to accelerate system-wide change and deliver co-benefits across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – from employment and economic growth to reduced inequalities and improved health.” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

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Imagine a world where your travels didn't harm the environment and the fuel used in planes had a lower carbon footprint? This is the world we aspire to create.

The Waste to Wing Incubator, an 18-month initiative for 25 SMEs that will consist of interactive entrepreneur-led business workshops, mentorship, access to market, and investment readiness support for selected participants. 

The Waste to Wing project aims to prove the feasibility of a waste-based Sustainable Aviation Fuel industry in South Africa - it has been investigating the use of waste biomass as a feedstock for SAF production, which could revolutionise the aviation industry and reduce our flying carbon footprint. 

Eligibility Criteria
SMEs must be operational for more than 1 year
The business should be operational, sustainable and viable
The owner should be involved full-time in the business
​
The project is funded by the EU and forms part of the Switch Africa Green Programme, which is implemented by the EU and UN Environment. 

​Apply here.....
​

T​he time is ripe for South African businesses to make applications for finance to develop renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects.

This is the view of the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) in the wake of load-shedding and energy price hikes.

SANEDI was established in 2011 under the National Energy Act, 2008. The Act provides for SANEDI to direct, monitor and conduct energy research and development, promote energy research and technology innovation, as well as undertake measures to promote energy-efficiency throughout the economy.

Financially-constrained Eskom, which supplies about 90% of SA's power, last month implemented stage four rotational load-shedding.

As the challenges at Eskom persist, SA has been making steady progress in incorporating renewables into the country's energy mix.

The South African government envisages that in 2030, the energy mix will consist of 34 000MW of coal, representing 46% of installed capacity; 11 930MW of gas, or 16% of installed capacity; 11 442MW of wind, or 15% of installed capacity; 7 958MW of photovoltaic (PV, or solar); and 4 696MW of hydropower, or 6% of installed capacity.

This was stipulated in the country's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2018, a 20-year energy roadmap to meet SA's future power needs.

Electricity prices increased in SA from1 April. Last month, energy regulator Nersa said it had granted power utility Eskom the following tariff increases over the next three years: 9.41% or allowed revenue of R206.34 billion for 2019/2020; 8.10% or allowed revenue of R221.8 billion for 2020/2021, and 5.83% or allowed revenue of R233.1 billion for 2021/2022.

​SANEDI, which hosts SUNREF, an international lending programme that promotes green finance and energy innovation, has called on businesses to consider accessing SUNREF's green loans to develop renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects, in support of the country's efforts towards green transition.

SUNREF, developed by French Development Agency, is a programme relying on two pillars: a credit line to partner bank IDC, and a technical assistance facility hosted by SANEDI and funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Switzerland.

The programme helps green projects become bankable and access financing from IDC. It is linked to a credit line with the IDC for around $60 million to fund projects that fit its mandate to promote energy-efficiency and renewable energy in SA.

Rob Short from SUNREF explains who can apply for the green loans: "It can be any business, in any sector, that wants to look at energy-efficiency or renewable projects in terms of its own internal processes or within its supply chain. As well as companies that provide manufacturing services or goods for the renewable energy and energy-efficiency sectors."

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A growing number of banks are offering incentives for businesses and small companies to install  Solar Photovoltaic (solar PV)  panels, Jack Radmore, GreenCape’s energy programme manager, said. 

He said a typical solar panel installation, to power a small home between 4-7kWp, can cost anything between R60,000 and R105,000, excluding battery costs. 

This translates into roughly R1.30 per kWh for the next 15 years, he said. 

Commercial tariffs sit between 85c and R1.70 per kWh and residential tariffs can go as high as R2.20 per kWh. 

Read GreenCape's full financial brief here
Radmore said for a medium-sized commercial system, roughly the size of 250kWp, the price increase to roughly R3.2 million, excluding battery costs.

This translates into roughly R0.90 per kWh for the next 15 years.

“It is very important to highlight that these upfront costs are no longer a barrier in the South African decentralised energy market,” Radmore told Business Insider South Africa.

“A number of innovative financial mechanisms exist that require no upfront capital from the customer.”

For example, he said, a power purchase agreement allows consumers to buy electricity per unit as they do from Eskom at a set price for between 12 and 15 years. 

Also read: With the new power price, solar geysers are almost – but not quite – starting to make financial sense
Radmore gave Business Insider South Africa a break down of what each bank is offering for solar panel installations. 

It is important to note that solar panels are VAT deductible, and qualifies for a 12b tax benefit which can result in additional savings of 28% on cost. 

The New Development Bank (NDB) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) have signed a $300-million loan agreement for the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and Energy Sector Development project.

The NDB will provide the loan to the DBSA without a sovereign guarantee.
The loan will be in the form of a two-step loan and will be on-lent to the DBSA’s identified subprojects within the wind, solar and biomass energy sectors, in particular.

The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and Energy Sector Development project is designed to support renewable energy projects in South Africa and help the economy shift to a more sustainable energy path through structural transformation of the energy sector with emerging renewable technologies.

The objective of the project is to facilitate investments in renewable energy that will contribute to the power generation mix and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in South Africa, in line with the South African government’s Integrated Resource Plan and its target of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions as articulated in the National Development Plan 2030.

According to a statement issued on Monday, the project will bring significant developmental impacts through the subprojects, particularly related to environmental and social benefits from the reduction in CO2 emissions, the increase in generation capacity from renewable energy sources, and the increase in the efficiency of the energy sector in South Africa.

The project is also expected to contribute to unlocking private sector investment and increasing the availability of long-term funds for projects in the energy sector in the country.

The loan agreement was signed by NDB VP and COO Xian Zhu and DBSA CEO Patrick Dlamini during the fourth yearly meeting of the NDB in South Africa. 

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CAPE TOWN — The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis’. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity – which can be elegantly applied to Eskom’s dysfunction right now. In yet another injection of life-giving hope to the endangered and corruption-traumatised national psyche, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, is investing big-time in renewable energy projects, the aim being to have imbedded “green” energy contributing 11.5% of total renewable energy capacity by 2030. The DBSA $200m shot-in-the-arm to the Embedded Generation Investment Program, involves helping 10 proof of concept projects more easily attract commercial financing. We’ve seen how powerful a force for societal good and course-correction banks in South Africa can be (if only to protect themselves), first by closing down the Gupta’s accounts and then the Watsons. Some of the big banks are refusing to finance coal-fired power plants, helping bring South Africa kicking and screaming into globally-accepted diversified sources of generation. Increasingly it seems, the nightmare is ending, even if we had to first wake up and smell the dimly-lit open cesspit. – Chris Bateman

By Roxanne Henderson

(Bloomberg) – South Africa’s state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa is funding a program intended to give renewable energy projects in the electricity-starved country a boost by making them more appealing to commercial banks.

The financier will funnel $200m into the Embedded Generation Investment Program to kick start developments that will add 330 megawatts of new generating capacity to the national grid and reduce carbon emissions. Half of the funding will be provided by the Green Climate Fund, the Johannesburg-based financier said in an emailed statement.

While the DBSA’s investments will get initiatives off the ground, the goal is to create projects that commercial lenders will want to fund to completion, said Mohale Rakgate, the group executive responsible for project preparation. The projects will need to attract at least $104m more from local banks in their initial phases, he said.

“We have a pipeline of more than 10 projects,” Rakgate said. “We want to take the first steps, prove the concepts work” and get commercial financing, he said, adding that “attracting private funding is really at the core of what we are doing.”

​Global trend
South Africa aims to have embedded generation contribute 2,600 megawatts to the country’s renewable energy capacity, representing an 11.5% slice, by 2030 and is rekindling enthusiasm for green alternatives to keep the nation’s lights on. The country’s debt-laden utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. has been forced to cut power in recent weeks as it cannot afford to maintain its coal-fired plants.

“This is in line with a global trend that has been happening in the US and Europe. South Africa is just catching up on the renewable trend of how power is now generated by diversifying sources of generation,” Rakgate said.

Nedbank Group Ltd. is already shunning coal-fired projects, with the Johannesburg-based lender saying last month it will no longer provide project financing or other forms of asset-specific financing where the proceeds will be used to develop plants using the fuel, regardless of the country or technology.

The DBSA will launch the program after the country’s revised Integrated Resource Plan is approved by the government and will also allocate some of the funding to black empowerment schemes, it said.

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The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation NEFCO and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) have today signed an agreement to cooperate on expanding off-grid electricity solutions in sub-Saharan African countries. The purpose of this new and major expansion, the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) is to incentivise the private sector to provide affordable and clean, high-quality off-grid energy services to people living in rural and peri-urban areas in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mozambique and Zambia. The programme, implemented together with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.

Over 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live today without access to electricity. For most of these people, connection to the grid is not likely to happen for decades, or longer. So far, no country has been able to bridge the poverty gap without access to electricity.

The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa aims to reduce this gap by stimulating and accelerating the emergence of new business models for provision of affordable energy access at scale whilst demonstrating sustainability over time. The programme forms part of the ‘Power Africa’ initiative launched by former President Barack Obama and contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the Paris Agreement.

The programme builds on the positive experiences of the Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia (BGFZ), which Sweden commenced in 2016. Sweden will contribute an initial SEK 500 million (approx. EUR 48 million) to the expansion and is through the cooperation with NEFCO looking to attract other like-minded donors with the aim to convert the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa into a multi-donor programme over time. NEFCO will manage the new facility and the programme will be implemented in collaboration with REEEP, an expert organisation who has been instrumental to the early success of the Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia.

“NEFCO is accredited by the EU and the Green Climate Fund and is an experienced fund manager, which is already managing several trust funds for Sida,” says Anders Arvidson, Project Leader for Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa at Sida. “We share the same values as regards environmental, social and gender aspects. Additionally, NEFCO can provide the highest level of fiduciary requirements related to reporting, auditing and anti-corruption.”

Magnus Rystedt, Managing Director at NEFCO sees great potential for small and medium-sized businesses in the programme: “We are very happy for this opportunity to make use of our considerable experience in setting up and administrating multi-donor instruments and create new, innovative green growth financing opportunities for small-and medium sized private energy companies.” 

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