Mainstream Renewable Power CEO Eddie O’Connor
Private grantmaking foundation the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is participating in a $117.5-million investment in the Lekela Power Platform, which aims to build over 1.3 GW of wind and solar plants in Africa by 2018.
The fund, created in 1940 by the sons of US oil industry pioneer John D Rockefeller, is among a consortium that also includes the International Finance Corporate (IFC), the IFC African, Latin American and Caribbean Fund, the IFC Catalyst Fund, Ascension Investment Management and Sanlam.
Lekela Power is a 60:40 joint venture between private equity group Actis and Mainstream Renewable Power, an Irish-linked independent power producer.
Mainstream Renewable Power CEO Eddie O’Connor says the deal will allow Lekela to continue to build a pipeline of renewable-energy projects across Africa, where it plans to build four more wind farms in South Africa, a wind farm and two solar plants in Egypt, as well as wind farms in Senegal and Ghana.
“The teaming up of the world’s leading independent renewable power developer with a foundation started by members of the family that effectively founded the global oil industry, is a significant moment in the world’s transition to a new power system based on clean energy,” O’Connor added.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund president Stephen Heintz said he was confident that if John D Rockefeller were still alive, he would recognise the enormous opportunities in the clean energy economy and be at the forefront of the global shift to renewable resources.