The National Treasury of South Africa has introduced a loan guarantee scheme – the ‘Energy Bounce Back’ to support commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects. The scheme has an objective of setting up 1 GW of rooftop PV capacity. It also attempts to help micro and informal companies to be more resilient to loadshedding. Even without direct generation capacity, the strategies for improving resilience include power storage devices like batteries and inverters. Furthermore, the programme will function through three unique mechanisms.These mechanism include working capital loans for enterprises in the rooftop solar supply chain, loan guarantees for energy service companies, and loan guarantees for small and medium-sized businesses.
The maximum annual revenue for participating companies must be $15.9 million, and their total borrowing capacity cannot exceed ZAR 10 million. The programme is scheduled to end on August 30, 2024.
In May 2022, Sola Group, a Cape Town-based renewables developer, received authorisation from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to build two 100 MW solar power plants in South Africa’s North West regions.
