SA manufacturers are rushing to embrace renewables

June 09, 2025

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South Africa's leading bank in assets, Standard Bank, and renewable energy aggregator NOA Group have finalised financing for the 349 MW solar PV project in South Africa. Set to be the country's largest single-asset solar facility, the plant will supply power to corporate clients in mining, manufacturing data centres and real estate via the national grid.

  • The deal marks Standard Bank's third financing agreement with NOA Group this year, showing significant demand in the market. This latest deal follows the financing of two wind projects, totalling 234.5 MW.

  • South African manufacturers are rushing to embrace renewables to secure their European export markets, with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) becoming fully operational in 2026, targeting carbon-intensive imports such as iron, steel and cement.

  • Our take: Renewables demand will grow at a higher rate as manufacturers rush to meet export market demands for low-carbon production… Read more (2 min)

Climate Fund Managers (CFM), a climate-focused blended finance investment manager, has pledged $3 million to fund a 76 MW biomass plant in Ivory Coast. The facility will be the world's first grid-connected plant to generate electricity from cocoa waste. It will be built through a public-private partnership with SODEN, an independent power producer.

  • Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer of cocoa, contributing 45% of the global supply. Every tonne of cocoa creates more than 13 tonnes of waste, presenting an opportunity for electricity generation.

  • African countries are exploring various waste-to-energy solutions. As agricultural economies, they produce about 1 billion tonnes of waste annually. Some, like Ethiopia, are already harnessing waste for electricity.

  • Our take: Given the world’s love of chocolate, the use of cocoa waste as feedstock guarantees a continuous supply… Read more (2 min)

Cash prices for solar panels, solar home systems, and inverters remained relatively flat across Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya in June. However, South Africa experienced a 4.8% decline in inverter prices, and Egypt saw an average 1.1% increase in lithium-ion battery prices, as retailers adjusted their consumer prices to meet market operating costs.

  • Renewables Rising collects and monitors monthly data on select products (solar panels, inverters, solar home systems and lithium-ion batteries) across four representative countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya. 

  • Since March, prices for the four tracked products have shown only marginal changes. However, this could change as a new financial year commences for some traders.

  • Our take: Even as Africa embraces renewables, misguided protectionist measures like import bans on solar equipment risk undermining progress… Read more (2 min)

JA Solar staff celebrate the production of the first solar DeepBlue 4.0 Pro modules locally in South Africa

 

Events

📅 Be at a session on energy management regulations (Jun 11)

📅 Discuss the basics of electricity markets in this webinar (Jun 12)

📅 Attend the Africa Energy Expo (Nov 25)

Jobs

💼 Apply for BASF’s Asset Manager position (South Africa)

🛒 Become HT Solar’s Procurement Specialist (Egypt)

👷🏽 Join AlteGen as a Project Manager: Site Development (South Africa)

Various 

⚡ Ghana boosts off-grid access with new Renewable Energy Program

🔋 Jinko Solar is the module supplier for Angola's largest private solar project

💸 Weza Power secures $600K grant from Anzana Electric, AfDB for Burundi energy

Seen on LinkedIn 

Sarah Malm, Executive Director at GOGLA, says, “Off-grid solar is the least-cost, fastest-to-deploy, and most scalable solution available today. Energy Access goals cannot be achieved without financially sustainable off-grid companies.”