H1 Capital gets $40 mn for South African green energy projects

Norfund, the Norwegian investment fund for developing countries, and the UK’s development finance institution CDC Group Plc said Thursday they have committed to invest ZAR600 million ($40 million) in H1 Capital, a South-African renewable energy investment and development company.

While Norfund is bringing ZAR360 million, CDC will chip in with ZAR240 million.

This investment will support the country’s clean energy goals, as it will enable H1 Capital to fund a pipeline of over 2.4 GW of new wind and solar projects, generating approximately 6,400 GWh per year.

The South African government has set an ambitious target to generate 20GW of new renewable capacity over the next decade to address power shortages and decarbonise the power generation fleet, where 86% of the country’s energy mix is thermal.

Norfund and CDC said that the investment in H1 Capital shows commitment by the UK and Norway to act on pledges made at the COP26 conference last year to scale climate finance to Africa and deepen collaboration on solutions that will meet the continent’s needs and address the climate emergency.

At the summit, Norway had announced the creation of a new climate investment fund to be managed by Norfund. This capital to H1 Capital will be the first investment under the new fund.

“South Africa needs access to long-term, patient capital to develop the large-scale energy projects required for reliable, clean power supply and economic development. H1 hopes that the partnership fostered with Norfund and CDC can be replicated with other players and projects in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said H1 CEO Reyburn Hendricks.