Renewable energy intermediary in Zambia raises USD 15.5m

Africa GreenCo has raised USD 15.5 million (EUR 14.7m) to scale its activities as Zambia’s first renewable energy buyer and services provider, it was announced last week.

The funds, secured from InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) and the EU-funded Electrification Financing Initiative (EDFI ElectriFi), will allow GreenCo to support a portfolio of up to 110 MW of renewable energy.

GreenCo’s Lusaka-based business, GreenCo Power Services, was set up in 2020 to purchase power from renewable independent power producers (IPPs) and sell it to utilities, private sector off-takers and competitive markets in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).

Zambia’s Minister of Energy Peter Chibwe Kapala noted that GreenCo Power Services is the first intermediary power trader in Zambia after the enactment of the 2019 energy sector legal framework.

“GreenCo is an innovative business that has the potential to increase private investments in renewable energy by acting as a creditworthy intermediary between private producers of renewable energy and off-takers,” commented IFU vice president Otto Vinther Christensen.

According to the announcement, GreenCo has awarded its first power purchase agreement (PPA) tender to a 25-MW pilot solar project in Sesheke in Zambia’s Western Province. It has also agreed a deal to buy and sell the excess generation of a large hydro plant.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.946)

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