Specialist bank Investec is investing ZAR8 billion (US$813 million) in South Africa’s renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP).
Robert Gecelter from Investec's project and infrastructure finance team said the funding amount for solar has not been decided yet, but most of the funding is likely to go to concentrated solar power as well as a number of PV projects and also wind.
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The funding will go towards the third round of bids under the REIPPP programme, which is due to close on 19 August and expected to allocate 400MW of PV.
In total, 27 PV projects were selected in the first and second rounds of the programme, worth over 1GW of capacity.
In total the REIPPPP has set a target of installing 3,725MW of renewable-energy capacity by the end of 2016.
According to Bloomberg, Investec has already invested ZAR20 billion in clean energy in south Africa.
Fazel Moosa, head of project and infrastructure finance at Investec’s said of a recent investment the company made in a wind energy project near Cape Town in June: “Given the unprecedented debt and equity financing requirements of the renewable programme, Investec will continue to utilise its capacity to provide debt and equity financing in support of this impressive governmental initiative.”
Investec is one of the top five banks in South Africa and also has energy investments in Mozambique.