Photo by: Duane Daws
Global energy-focused private equity firm Denham Capital and renewable-energy investment company GreenWish Partners have entered into a strategic partnership to develop, build and finance a 600 MW renewable-energy portfolio across sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.
The partnership would unlock the financing, scale and means required to pursue a $1-billion on- and off-grid project pipeline across several countries.
With Denham’s backing, GreenWish aims to build on the first success of its solar independent power producer project and to provide power capacity to other parts of the continent, as the construction of Senergy II nears completion.
GreenWish, in partnership with French construction group Vinci, broke ground on the 20 MW photovoltaic plant, in Bokhol, Senegal, to provide electricity access to over 180 000 Senegalese upon completion in October.
GreenWish also aimed to offer business-to-business solar hybrid solutions to energy-intensive industries across Africa, including telecoms operators, as well as mining and commercial offtakers.
“We look forward to partnering with Denham for this expansion phase of GreenWish in sub-Saharan Africa. Independent power producers such as GreenWish are a key solution to the African electricity gap that requires more than $40-billion in annual investments,” said GreenWish CEO Charlotte Aubin-Kalaidjian.
In Africa, excluding South Africa, the average yearly consumption of electricity was said to be around 162 kWh per capita, compared with the global average of 7 000 kWh, with total power generation capacity on the continent limited to 90 GW.
However, with an average of 300 sunny days a year, solar energy presented a competitive, clean and quick-to-market solution to Africa’s electricity shortage.
Energy-sector bottlenecks and power shortages cost the region between 2% and 4% of gross domestic product a year.