- Renewable energy provider Decentral Energy Managers is raising $12.1 million to expand its operations in South Africa.
- Decentral supplies, finances and builds solar power plants to supply commercial and industrial (C&I) customers.
A J South African firm named Decentral Energy will get $12.1 million to increase the scope of its South African project portfolio. Luel Culwick and Christian Bode, who co-lead the business, construct solar facilities for clients in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector. Since South Africa’s energy crisis started, companies like Decentral have emerged as major players in the country’s energy market.
The state-owned company Eskom’s power producing facilities are old, which contributes to the dilemma as seen in the increase in load shedding.
In light of this, Decentral has secured funding from the companies Flyt Property Investment, Anuva Investments, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is investing in the project as part of the Power Africa initiative, and the real estate development company Lions Head Global Partners.
The company now has 10 MW of solar assets with installed capacity and claims to have 500 MW of assets in various stages of construction throughout the rainbow nation. Customers in the retail, tourism, residential, commercial, and industrial sectors are largely served by Decentral in terms of electricity supply.
These key job-creating sectors are heavily impacted by load shedding. With the new investments, Decentral expects to contribute to the decarbonization of South Africa’s energy sector by reducing emissions by 328,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
Decentral will leverage these investments to finance new C&I transactions, primarily with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company aims to develop between 45 and 50 MWp of installed capacity, benefiting at least 40 companies in South Africa.