Empower New Energy is an investment vehicle for small and medium-sized captive commercial and industrial (“C&I”) renewable energy projects across Africa.
Our Development Partner
We Invest
USD 2.50
million
Development Funding Approved
USD 50
million
Construction Equity Fund Opportunity
Estimated Project Impact
100 MW additional capacity
151 GWh/year clean electricity
70 684 tCO2eq/year emissions avoided
TBC construction jobs
367 183 people reached
Funding Rationale
Empower New Energy has developed long-term partnerships with local developers and has built a pipeline of rooftop and small ground solar, some with storage solutions, in several African countries. CI1 has entered in a term sheet and a Development Funding Agreement to participate in funding Empower’s pipeline which is estimated at a total of c.100 MW to be developed over 3 years.
Contract Signature Date
April 2022
Estimated Commercial Operations Date
TBC
Region
Africa
Countries
Pan-Africa
Business Model
C&I Solar (With some storage)
Technology
Solar PV
Environmental & Social Category
B
Sector
Renewable Energy
E&S Context
This investment opportunity has been classified as Category B in accordance with CI1’s E&S risk categorisation, which is equivalent to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) E&S risk category B. Given the nature of the investment, with the underlying projects comprising small solar installations on C&I offtaker premises in urban or agri-industrial areas, adverse E&S impacts are expected to be limited, site-specific and readily managed/mitigated. The main E&S considerations relate to IFC Performance Standard (PS) 2 (occupational health and safety and third-party labour and working conditions, including in the supply chain) and PS 3 (sustainable water use and waste management, including safe recovery and disposal of wastes from end-of-life solar panels and batteries). Empower has developed an environmental and social management system (ESMS), which sets out requirements for local development partners to conduct feasibility studies and E&S risk assessments, obtain all required permits and approvals, and develop project-specific IFC-compliant ESMSs to be implemented by the EPC and O&M contractors during project design, construction and operation.