Eskom Green seeks partners for up to 6GW of renewables and storage

Eskom has opened a request for qualification to find co-development and co-investment partners for up to 6GW of renewable generation and battery storage, the first phase of its new utility-scale renewables business. Eskom Green, being incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary, will contribute at least 2GW of solar and 1GW of batteries.

Eskom Green is aiming for 32GW of renewable generation by 2040, with 2GW this year and 6GW by 2030, Eskom’s general manager for strategy, Matthew Mflathelwa, told the Joburg Indaba on 8 October, and the next day the utility opened the procurement meant to start building it.

The request for qualification, listed on Eskom’s tender bulletin as tender 96470, covers the first phase of the programme, up to 6GW of utility-scale renewable energy and storage. Eskom will contribute at least 2GW of solar PV and 1GW, or 4GWh, of battery storage from its own pipeline, on sites it has already allocated.

Selected companies will join a five-year panel of co-development and co-investment partners. They may bring projects they own or originated alongside Eskom’s, with each project structured and funded on its own terms.

Eskom expects its projects to sit in ring-fenced special purpose vehicles financed mainly on limited or non-recourse terms. The qualification stage awards no contracts, since partners on the panel will later be invited to bid for specific projects through requests for proposal.

Eskom Green is being incorporated with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission as a subsidiary wholly owned by Eskom Holdings, which will run the procurement on its behalf until that is complete.

Karel Cornelissen, chief executive of NOA Group, who chaired the Joburg Indaba panel, said well over R100bn had been committed to new generation capacity in South Africa in the past 12 months.