Kodeni Solar has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with SONABEL, the electricity utility of Burkina Faso, as part of a public-private partnership with the government. The construction was entrusted to French specialist INEO by EQUANS, a company of Engie Group. The project will create 150 direct jobs in the construction phase and 35 permanent jobs in the operation phase.

With an annual production of 73,000 MWh, the Kodeni solar power plant will provide clean, reliable and affordable energy to nearly 115,000 homes. It will also reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and avoid the emission of 41 000 tons of CO2 each year, helping Burkina Faso to further address climate change.

Gilles Parmentier, CEO of Africa REN, said: “We are particularly proud of the step we are taking today. Kodeni Solar will be the largest solar power plant in Burkina Faso to become operational. We would like to extend our special thanks to the Government of Burkina Faso and to the teams at SONABEL for their warm welcome and unwavering support in bringing this project to fruition in a very short timeframe.”

H.E. Dr. Bachir Ismael Ouedraogo, Minister of Energy, said, “This is an essential project for the energy autonomy of Burkina Faso. Solar energy is the cheapest and most abundant source of electricity for the country. Kodeni Solar also demonstrates that the framework put in place by the government to encourage public-private partnerships is beginning to bear fruit. More than 500MW of capacity will be added before 2025 at an extremely competitive price, to the benefit of the Burkinabe population and businesses.”

Development of the project was undertaken by Africa REN with the support of the Seed Capital Assistance Facility, an initiative from the United Nations Environment Programme, that co-financed the project development phase. FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, Access to Energy Fund (a fund managed by FMO on behalf of the Dutch government) and the Interact Climate Change Facility (ICCF), a joint facility of European Development Institutions, provided the long-term debt.

Huub Cornelissen, Director Energy at FMO, said: “Kodeni Solar is one of our first investment in Burkina Faso, a country where we feel welcome and where there is tremendous opportunity in the renewables sector. With our partners in the country and in the wider region, we are thrilled to engage in a greener future for the Sahel at a time when such investment is badly needed.”

To support its ambition to develop more clean energy and sustainable infrastructure projects, Africa REN teamed up with Metier Sustainable Capital, a private equity fund focused on clean infrastructure investments across Africa, managed by Metier, and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Metier and FMO established and funded Africa REN Energy, a newly formed investment holding dedicated to support Africa REN’s projects, as well as the operating entities of the Africa REN Group. Africa REN Energy provided the equity to the project and is now the sole shareholder of Kodeni Solar.

Marc Immerman, a principal at Metier’s Sustainable Capital practice, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Africa Ren management team and FMO in the Africa REN clean energy investment platform. Africa REN have demonstrated a pioneering ability to offer and deliver value-add clean energy projects to West African utilities and corporates. The opportunity to grow a cutting edge West African IPP that is poised to give exceptional returns and positive ESG impacts across the region is exciting.”

Paul Botha, the Metier CEO said, “As a firm Metier is proud of this transaction which further cements our ambition to evolve into a Pan-African private equity firm”. Metier’s Sustainable Capital practice is a clean infrastructure private equity fund manager with a mandate to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency, water and waste opportunities across Africa.

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Bokpoort CSP is one of South Africa’s premier CSP projects and fulfils Revego’s mandate of investing in operational, dividend-earning renewable assets. Revego is buying the stake from Metier, one of South Africa’s leading private equity firms, who manages the Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital fund.

Bokpoort CSP is a 50MW plant run as an independent power producer, with Saudi Arabian based ACWA Power International acting as the operational partner.

Bokpoort CSP was one of the first CSP projects in South Africa under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme. It is unusual among renewable energy projects in that it has significant energy storage onsite in the form of thermal salt storage. It recently became the first renewable facility in Africa to complete a full week of continuous operations, going on to run continuously for 13 days using its onsite storage. It also claimed the record as South Africa’s largest infrastructure refinancing transaction, of approximately R5bn.

Reyburn Hendricks, CEO of Revego, says the Bokpoort CSP acquisition is an important first step towards building the Revego portfolio. “The economics of the acquisition stack up well – Bokpoort CSP is backed by a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Eskom, supported by government guarantees, and with a power tariff indexed to the Consumer Price Index,” he argues. “Our investment team also has expertise in renewable energy acquisitions and the complexities of CSP technology.”

Hendricks adds that a major part of Revego’s strategy is to provide a viable option to early-stage investors in renewable projects. “These are investors whose investment objective have been achieved, such as private equity firms or sponsors looking for an exit, BEE investors looking to realise gains or redeploy capital, or REIPPP investors wanting to liquidate their holdings into cash or into a listed asset such as Revego,” he explains.

In this case, Metier was looking to realise its investment in a project in which it has been involved from the outset, from site identification through to successful operation. Partners Marc Immerman and Michael Goldblatt with Metier and Lereko and supported by the Industrial Development Corporation, initiated the Bokpoort CSP project and were active throughout the entire development, construction and operational periods.

This was part of Metier’s sustainable capital practice, which targets investments in energy efficiency, renewables, water and waste management businesses, as well as projects supporting Africa’s development objectives and environmental commitments.

Goldblatt says Metier is proud of the role it has played in bringing Bokpoort CSP to where it is today. “In addition to a well-operated and significant renewable plant on the South African grid, we also leave a lasting legacy of extensive and successful socio-economic development programmes implemented in the local community, including a comprehensive youth centre, a farming ownership programme, school feeding vegetable gardens, and bursaries for local students amongst others. We are confident that Revego, alongside other shareholders, will continue to take the project from strength to strength.”

The Bokpoort CSP acquisition ahead of the listing of Revego on the JSE, has been funded through a bridge facility provided by Investec Bank. Investec is also a cornerstone investor in Revego, alongside UKCI, a joint venture between the Green Investment Group and the UK government and the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund.

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