Etana Energy signs new IPP in South Africa to generate nearly 500GWh annually under GuarantCo-enabled pioneering framework

  • Date d'écriture
  • mars, 2026

Etana Energy, the South African energy company, has reached financial close on its fourth solar project as part of a groundbreaking framework launched in December 2024. The framework agreement was secured through a USD 100 million payment default guarantee provided by GuarantCo, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), and British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.

Etana Energy signs new IPP in South Africa to generate nearly 500GWh annually under GuarantCo-enabled pioneering framework

The 219MW utility-scale solar PV project, near Orkney in South Africa’s Northwest province has achieved financial close following the execution of an innovative power purchase agreement (PPA) between the developer and owner Mulilo and Partners, with Etana Energy as the sole off-taker.

The Orkney solar plant is more than double the size of Etana’s first solar project with Mulilo announced last year. Once operational, the Orkney project is expected to produce around 478GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be wheeled to Etana’s customers via the national and municipal distribution networks. The supply will displace over 500,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year, which is equivalent to removing around 140,000 internal combustion engine vehicles from the road.

This milestone means Etana has now closed more than 500MW of renewable energy projects in the last 12 months, inclusive of the previously announced 105MW Du Plessis Dam Solar PV2 project and the 100 MW Zen and 94MW Bergrivier wind farms. Etana is also already actively wheeling electricity to Growthpoint premises across South Africa from the 5MW Boston hydroelectric plant in the Free State, which reached commercial operations in October 2025.

These deals were enabled by the GuarantCo/BII guarantee framework, which is designed to unlock new renewable energy capacity by providing independent power producers (IPPs) with the revenue certainty they need to break ground on new renewable energy projects.

Dave Chalila, Head of Africa and Middle East Investments at GuarantCo, said:

“We congratulate Etana Energy on this latest major milestone. The rapid scaling of Etana’s generation portfolio is testimony to the workability of the pioneering energy financing model we delivered just 15 months ago and demonstrates increasing market confidence in South Africa’s renewable sector.

“Our work with Etana Energy provides strong replication opportunities by proving to the market that a guarantee framework can work at scale. GuarantCo continues to seek out potential market transformation transactions like this in lower-income countries to deliver against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in alignment with the PIDG 2030 strategy.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

About GuarantCo

GuarantCo mobilises private sector local currency investment for infrastructure projects and supports the development of financial markets in lower income countries across Africa and Asia. GuarantCo is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden, through the PIDG Trust, the Netherlands, through FMO and the PIDG Trust, France through a stand-by facility and Global Affairs Canada through a repayable facility. GuarantCo is rated AA- by Fitch and A1 by Moody’s in 2014. Since 2005, GuarantCo has enabled USD 7.1 billion of total investment and USD 6.8 billion of private sector investment, giving 44.8 million people access to infrastructure and creating around 248,000 jobs in Africa and Asia. GuarantCo’s activities are managed by GuarantCo Management Company which is part of Cardano Development. www.guarantco.com

 

About PIDG

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure development and finance organisation which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. PIDG investments promote socio-economic development within a just transition to net zero emissions, combat poverty and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of pioneering, partnership, safety, inclusivity, and urgency.

 

[PIDG offers technical assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity through its project development solution, InfraCo; its debt solution EAAIF (the Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund) is one of the first and more successful blended debt funds in low-income markets; and its guarantees solution, GuarantCo, provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects. PIDG also supports a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlock domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing.

 

Since 2002, PIDG has supported 258 infrastructure projects to financial close, which provided an estimated 232 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden, and Global Affairs Canada. www.pidg.org

 

About Etana Energy

Etana Energy is a licensed energy trader actively supplying renewable electricity through the national and municipal electricity grids to businesses across South Africa. A majority black-owned company, Etana provides businesses with flexible, renewable energy solutions that are clean and simple – enabling deep decarbonisation, forward price path certainty and significant cost savings. Etana has one hydroelectric project in operation, over 400MW of wind and solar in construction, and a 500MW+ pipeline of shovel-ready grid-connectable renewable energy projects, underpinned by secured payment guarantee facilities. With this, Etana is fulfilling its mission of accelerating the deployment of new clean energy generation capacity to the South African grid. For more information, visit https://etana.energy/