Financial firm Standard Bank’s R9.4-billion involvement in government-approved renewable-energy projects has earned the bank the ranking of twelfth greenest bank globally by Bloomberg Markets.
Each year, Bloomberg Markets assesses the top 40 global banks based on their lending to clean-energy projects and reduction in their own power consumption and carbon footprints.
Standard Bank backed 11 of the 28 renewable-energy projects in the first round of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), said power and infrastructure finance executive VP Alastair Campbell.
Five of the eight wind projects, representing 338 MW, and six of the 18 solar photovoltaic projects, representing 235 MW, were financed by the bank in a process that it proactively kicked off three years ago, he noted.
South Africa aimed to tender 3 725 MW of renewable projects over three bidding rounds scheduled to take place each year until the full allocation has been awarded.
Standard Bank’s financing of selected projects during the multiyear REIPPPP was supported by a R20-billion funding support agreement between the financial institution and its 20% stakeholder, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The banks would provide debt financing to companies that meet "preferred bidder" status.
Standard Bank allocated R7.1-billion for seven of the 19 projects in the second round of bidding for about 1 200 MW of renewable-energy capacity, which was expected to reach financial close at the end of this month.
The bank was also preparing financing packages to support project developers in the third bidding window, for which the requests for proposals would be issued this month.
AFRICA
The bank had also earmarked billions of rands for projects throughout other African countries, said Campbell, noting that the “next two to three years will continue to be a time of intense activity, not just domestically in South Africa but also on the rest of the continent”.
Standard Bank, which believed that South Africa’s renewable-energy programme was likely to be used as a blueprint for renewable-energy development in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, was currently participating in several projects throughout Africa.
Campbell said renewable projects, such as wind, hydro and solar, besides others, were currently under way in Tanzania, Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.
The company was also financing a $4.5-billion hydroproject in Mozambique.