Africa’s largest battery energy storage project in the Northern Cape gets UK jolt
Lameez Omarjee
The Red Sands battery energy storage solution will be developed on about five hectares of land, 100km outside Upington, in the Northern Cape (Luke Daniel/News24).
- A battery energy storage project in the Northern Cape is the largest of its kind in Africa and has won the backing of the UK government.
- The project, Red Sands, to be developed by the UK’s Globeleq, will be partly funded through the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
- The project is an estimated investment of R5.7 billion.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
The continent’s largest battery energy storage project, to be developed in the Northern Cape, will be partly funded through the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
According to a statement issued by the British High Commission on Friday, the 153MW project, is an estimated investment of R5.7 billion ($300 million).
The project will be developed by UK company Globeleq, which is majority-owned by British International Investment – a Development Finance Institution of the UK government.
Given this, the project will be partly funded through the UK government’s commitment to the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), which was announced three years ago at UN climate summit COP26.
The UK’s commitment to the JETP is $1.8 billion, in addition to grants. The commitment includes $500 million of financing from the British International Investment and Private Infrastructure Development Group. The battery storage project forms part of the $500 million allocation.
Speaking to News24 on Friday, Mike Foster, economic counsellor for the British High Commission, explained that the share of the estimated R5.7 billion to be backed through JETP would be determined after Globeleq reaches financial close on the project. This is expected in a few months.
“We do not know exactly what that number would be yet, and we won’t know until the financing package is determined. It (the project) will certainly be partly funded through the JETP,” he said.
Since 2021, the pledges to the JETP have grown from the initial $8.5 billion to $9.3 billion after Denmark and the Netherlands joined last year.
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Red Sands, as the project is known, will be UK company Globeleq’s first battery energy storage solution, having developed other solar PV and wind projects in South Africa in the past.
Globeleq took over the development of the project from African Green Ventures, a South African subsidiary of Norwegian energy company Magnora ASA, which originally developed the concept.
Martin Plaut 