JOHANNESBURG, May 18 (ANA) - Kibo Energy said on Tuesday it had entered into an agreement with Industrial Green Solutions (IGES) to jointly develop a portfolio of waste to energy projects in South Africa with an initial target of generating more than 50 megawatts of electricity for sale to industrial users.
The deal entails the establishment of Newco, in which Kibo will hold 65 percent for an equity loan contribution of R11.145 million as project development funding for the initial project, while IGES will hold 35 percent for an equity contribution to the value of a seven–project portfolio and development expenditure to date.
Newco will initially develop a phased project involving about eight megawatts (MW) of power for an industrial client, to be followed by six other projects at different sites, to a total generation of up to 50MW.
The project will utilise pyrolysis technologies to convert waste non-recyclable plastics to syngas for the generation of energy. The technology will be supplied by a local international technology firm in the form of a waste to energy conversion plant.
“This opportunity to enter the South African waste to energy market in strategic partnership with Lesedi and IGES is a win ... for all parties,” Kibo chief executive officer Louis Coetzee said in a statement.
“For Kibo, today’s agreement is in line with our strategy to integrate sustainable environmentally friendly energy generation into our portfolio, which could shortly include waste to energy projects in the United Kingdom currently the subject of a due diligence nvestigation.”
He said the 50 MW project pipeline also positioned Kibo in the new and exciting renewable energy industry in South Africa “and places us firmly on a programme to production and revenue in the short to medium term”.
Newco would enable South African industry to operate independently from state power utility Eskom and secure stable power supplies, Coetzee added.
“With the above in mind, we are keen to get started at the earliest opportunity and I look forward to providing further updates on our progress,” he said.
Eskom supplies the bulk of South Africa’s energy, most of it coal-fired, but has struggled to meet demand for more than a decade, with frequent breakdowns in its generating units blamed on years of inadequate maintenance.
“Sustained power cuts, caused by under-investment and a shortage of generating capacity, have damaged the South African economy,” Kibo Energy said on Tuesday, noting that planners were now considering the addition of independent power producers to the energy mix.
Developers and industrial users were looking to various forms of embedded energy supply, it said.
“These private initiatives, generally deployed in smaller-but-more-distributed units, will form an increasing part of the South African energy landscape over time as private enterprises seek to achieve some level of independence from the national grid,” Kibo said, adding:
“Newco intends to operate in this space.”
African News Agency