- The newly appointed head of Scatec’s sub-Saharan Africa business, Alberto Gambacorta, says the group is pursuing a 5 GW pipeline of renewable energy and storage opportunities in the region.
- Gambacorta is also keeping close tabs on the potential for independent transmission projects in South Africa, noting that the company has already built many kilometres of power lines and substations in South Africa.
The newly appointed head of Scatec’s sub-Saharan Africa business, Alberto Gambacorta, says the group is pursuing a 5 GW pipeline of renewable energy and storage opportunities in the region, especially in South Africa, which is already the Norwegian group’s global hub for engineering and operations.
Gambacorta, who was named GM for Scatec sub-Saharan Africa on November 6, stated that the region remains a priority market for the Oslo-listed company, which has invested about $2.5 billion there since 2011.
Having regularly and successfully participated in South Africa’s various public procurement bid windows for renewable energy, hybrid generation, and battery energy storage, Scatec is also positioning itself for the private market opportunities that have emerged as a result of regulatory changes.
These will be pursued through the Lyra Energy platform, which Scatec launched jointly with Standard Bank and Stanlib earlier in the year. This platform offers distributed access to utility-scale renewable energy to medium and large commercial and industrial companies.
Gambacorta says the offering relies on a wheeling model but that the participants are assessing trading prospects and are, thus, paying close attention to regulatory developments relating to the licensing of new traders, which Eskom is currently opposing legally.
He is also monitoring the potential for independent transmission projects in South Africa, noting that the company has already built many kilometres of power lines and substations to connect its plants to the national grid.
Scatec will also continue to participate in public procurement, having recently completed the 103 MW/412 MWh Mogobe battery energy storage project in the Northern Cape, valued at $170 million, to commercial close.
The company is also the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project and will provide it with operations and maintenance (O&M) as well as asset management services.
In fact, its Cape Town office is also a global hub for EPC and O&M services, providing such services for Scatec projects and operations globally and even to some third parties.
South Africa also has the highest number of employees in the larger group, at about 300, and Gambacorta, thus, listed talent development as a key priority as he takes up his new role.
Gambacorta holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree from Universitá degli Studi di Padova and subsequently completed an Executive Master’s in Energy Management from ESCP Business School, BI Norwegian Business School, and IFP—Institute Francais du Petrole.
Having worked for Scatec in Europe, Asia, and South America, he moved to South Africa in 2018. There, he served as senior VP of business development and was instrumental in developing the company’s project portfolio in South Africa and Botswana.