[Image: Mulilo Energy / Facebook]
Just two years after landing a major investment from one of the world’s biggest green energy backers, a relatively unknown South African company is making serious waves in the country’s power sector.
Mulilo Renewable Energy secured a US$200 million investment from Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) in 2023, and since then, the company has powered ahead of competitors, winning more large-scale battery storage projects in South Africa than anyone else.
That funding boost is now helping Mulilo take on state-run monopoly Eskom, which has (for too long) dominated the local market.
Founded in 2008, Mulilo is now positioning itself “to shape the future of the energy market in South Africa”, CEO Jan Fourie said in an interview at the firm’s Cape Town headquarters.
The goal this year? Finalising R36 billion worth of projects.
South Africa’s energy system has been struggling for years, thanks to corruption, poor maintenance, and Eskom’s ageing coal fleet. Rolling blackouts have become the norm, and while the government opened the door to private renewable energy producers over a decade ago, the real momentum has picked up more recently, as coal plants keep breaking down and new players step in.
Eskom, which still generates more than 80% of South Africa’s electricity from coal, has said it plans to build its own renewable energy and storage capacity. But right now, the utility is still in the middle of a major restructuring, splitting into separate generation, transmission, and distribution units. After years of government bailouts, it’s also trying to get its finances back on track.
“Eskom will be a player, but their role will be diminishing over time just by virtue of power stations being decommissioned and the like, and renewables needing to be up,” Fourie said. “Our aspiration is to be at the table in a couple of years with them and others.”
CIP, Mulilo’s majority investor, has big plans too. The goal? Build a 5GW portfolio of wind, solar, and battery projects over the next few years. Mulilo already has 420MW of renewables online and has come out on top in two-thirds of recent battery project auctions with about 1.1GW of storage in total. Around a quarter of those have already reached financial close.
Battery costs have dropped significantly in the bidding rounds, something Fourie attributes to stiffer competition, banks becoming more willing to fund these projects, and lower tech costs. He also says Mulilo benefits from a “very deep supply chain” for lithium-ion battery tech.
Of course, not everyone is thrilled, and according to TechCentral, one political party and a labour union have questioned the fairness of the auction process, especially given that Mulilo’s chairman, Jan Oberholzer, was formerly Eskom’s COO. They’ve also raised concerns about foreign ownership, pointing to the government’s pledge not to sell off the national grid.
But Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has pushed back, saying all auctions are handled with full transparency and subject to thorough legal and financial checks.
Even with all the momentum, there’s still a big challenge: getting the power to where it’s needed. Eskom has to build 14,000 kilometres of new transmission lines in the next 10 years to handle all the new renewable energy coming online.
“Today you’ve got grid, you think you have grid, and tomorrow it’s gone,” said Fourie. “So for us, it’s important to put our good developments into construction so that we can start selling power.”
Ja ne, no point waiting for Eskom to get their act together.
With several massive projects in the pipeline and some serious backing, the company isn’t just picking up where Eskom is falling short; it seems to be rewiring the energy landscape.
[Source: TechCentral]
