Africa-focused renewable energy independent power producer, BTE Renewables, has announced the acquisition of Sonnedix Solar South Africa, a company which owns a 60% interest in the 75MW Prieska solar PV plant located in the Northern Cape, South Africa’s renewable energy production nucleus.
BTE Renewables’ acquisition of the majority stake in the Prieska solar power plant increases its operating portfolio of renewable energy IPPs in Africa to 473 MW. Furthermore, the purchase fully complements its existing power plants, situated in South Africa and across its borders into Kenya, where it owns, operates and manages both solar PV and wind IPPs.
“This acquisition clearly demonstrates our commitment to growing our renewable energy asset portfolio, as it is complementing our organic growth from our strong portfolio of development projects,” said Robert Skjodt, CEO of BTE Renewables.
The Prieska project is a natural fit for our two solar PV plants in the same area of South Africa, whilst successfully increasing our operating project portfolio to 473MW. We look forward to working with our new partners, and contributing positively to South Africa’s clean energy production,” added Skjodt.
Prieska solar project’s shareholding structure
The balance of the Prieska Project’s shareholding (40%) includes: Mulilo Energy Holdings (20%); BEE partner, Ixowave (15%) and the Prieska PV Community Trust (5%).
BTE Renewables will furthermore take on the asset management of the Prieska Project to fulfil the management services agreement on behalf of the shareholders.
The Prieska Project is situated 50km South-West of Prieska, in the Northern Cape, on 125 hectares of agricultural land. The IPP was connected to the national grid six years ago, May 2016 and achieved Commercial Operations during July 2016. Juwi Renewable Energies was the Project’s EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) partner and remains the O&M (operations and maintenance services) partner.
BTE Renewables, which is wholly owned by Actis, has a portfolio of six IPPs in Africa. The Prieska project will be complimenting the Aggeneys 46 MWp Solar project, the Konkoonsies II 86 MWp Solar, the Excelsior 32.5 MW Wind project and the Golden Valley 120 MW Wind projects implemented under the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) Programme and the 102 MW Kipeto Wind project, in Kenya.
