Mainstream Renewable Power and Actis have announced the launch of Lekela Power, a joint venture that will roll out between 700 and 900 megawatts of wind and solar power capacity across Africa by 2018.
Construction of an initial three wind farms in South Africa under Lekela Power is due to commence this month. The projects are the 140MW Khobab Wind Farm and 140MW Loeriesfontein 2 Wind Farm located in the District Municipality of Namakwa and the 80MW Noupoort Wind Farm located in the Local Municipality of Umsobomvu. All three projects are expected to commence operations by 2016.
Mainstream Renewable Power says it has pipeline of other projects across Africa, including the 225 megawatt Ayitepa wind farm in Ghana, which it will transfer to the Lekela vehicle at financial close.
When fully operational the Ayitepa wind farm will generate approximately 10% of Ghana’s total electricity generation capacity; which currently stands at 2,000MW.
Power generation across Africa has suffered from a lack of investment. Even in South Africa blackouts are common; stemming from a previous failed attempt to deregulate electricity supply while preventing Eskom, the nation’s largest electricity generator, from bringing more capacity online. Currently, 95% of the country’s electricity is generated by coal-fired power stations.
The nation averages more than 2, 500 hours of sunshine per year and has significant wind resources.
The South African government has set a renewable energy target of 21.5 GW by 2030; consisting of 9200 MW of wind capacity, 8400 MW of solar panels and 1200 MW of concentrating solar power (CSP) capacity.
Mainstream has three wind and solar farms already operational in the country.
The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) named Mainstream “Lead Developer 2014” last year after the company was awarded 360 megawatts of projects under the Government’s Round 3 Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). This was in addition to the 238 megawatts it was awarded under the first Round.
Mainstream says it has a development pipeline of over 17,000 megawatts globally. The company is also currently operating and constructing solar and wind farms across Ireland, Chile and Canada.
Actis, which has a 60% stake in the Lekela Power JV, is a private equity firm investing exclusively in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The company states it has been involved in the deployment of around 14GW energy projects across 21 countries and providing energy access to more than 30 million people.
