Germany’s KFW offers Eskom R4bn loan

The German development bank, KFW, has offered a €200 million ($214 million) loan to South African power utility Eskom to further develop its transmission grid in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

The sovereign loan, part of an $8.5 billion energy transition pact between South Africa and some of the world’s richest countries, would enable Eskom to add 2 200 megawatts of renewable energy to the national grid, the German embassy to South Africa said Thursday. The advance requires approval from the utility and the National Treasury.

Moody’s upgrades Eskom rating (September 6, 2:47 p.m.)

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded its rating on Eskom’s long-term unguaranteed debt to B2 from Caa1, following the July 5 signing of a law that enabled the National Treasury to provide Eskom with debt relief and the first disbursement of money last month. Moody’s also changed the outlook on the debt to stable from positive.

Discovery to establish renewables marketplace (September. 6, 1:09 p.m.)

Discovery plans to establish a platform that will link South African companies with independent power producers who are selling renewable energy.

The medical insurance and financial services provider expects its platform to unlock at least 400 megawatts of additional power supply, and that could climb to as much as 1 000 megawatts.

Karpowership to gift game farm to ease South African power plan (September 6, 9:53 p.m.)

Karpowership has agreed to buy and donate a game farm to a provincial wildlife authority in a bid to ease environmental approval for one of three floating gas-fired power plants it wants to deploy in South Africa.

In exchange for the game farm, the Turkish company said that Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which manages protected areas in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, has undertaken to not object to its plan for a 450 megawatt, ship-mounted power plant at Richards Bay harbour.

Eskom’s ex-coo moves from coal to renewables developer Mulilo (September 6, 6 a.m.)

Jan Oberholzer, the former chief operating officer of Eskom, has shifted focus from fixing coal-fired power plants to developing clean energy in a new role at South African renewables producer Mulilo Energy Holdings.

Oberholzer has been appointed as a non-executive director and chairman of Mulilo’s board, according to the company, which is majority owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The green power producer has been awarded contracts to develop 910 megawatts of generating capacity, and has set a target of building and operating at least five gigawatts of wind, solar and battery projects by 2028.

Investment in alternative energy soars (September 5, 6:48 p.m.)

Fixed-investment spending in South Africa grew by the most in almost three years in the second quarter as companies and households invested in alternative energy sources because of persistent power cuts.

A sharp rise in investments in imported machinery and equipment – mostly for electricity infrastructure – led gross fixed capital formation to increase by 3.9% in the quarter, compared with 1.8% in the prior three months, Statistics South Africa said in a report released in the capital, Pretoria That contributed to better-than-expected gross domestic product growth of 0.6% in the second quarter.

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