Aced

News & Articles

 

NEWS & ARTICLES

 

ACED, EIMS Africa and Sibanye-Stillwater celebrate Castle Wind Farm achieving Commercial Operation

1 April 2025

ACED, EIMS Africa and Sibanye-Stillwater are pleased to announce that the 89MW Castle Wind Farm (Castle), a facility dedicated to supplying renewable energy to Sibanye-Stillwater’s South African (SA) operations, has achieved commercial operation. This marks a milestone for ACED, Sibanye-Stillwater (Sibanye) and for SA’s private renewable energy sector, with Castle being the largest private-offtake wind farm in operation in South Africa to date.

Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, says “This milestone represents a significant advancement in providing sustainable, lower-cost power and progressing towards our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040. We thank the project consortium for effectively managing the construction and start-up, ensuring our secured offtake. We will continue to drive the delivery of the balance of our renewable energy projects as a key element of our Group strategy.”

Located near De Aar in the Northern Cape, the project benefits from some of SA’s best wind resources and direct access to the main transmission corridor connecting the Cape provinces to the industrial north-east of South Africa. Castle will supply Sibanye’s SA operations via a wheeling agreement with Eskom. ACED and Sibanye's early market entry secured vital grid access, avoiding current capacity constraints that limit new wind project development.

The Castle consortium is led and co-sponsored by African Clean Energy Developments (ACED), with African Infrastructure Investment Managers’ (AIIM) IDEAS Fund and Reatile Renewables (Reatile) as shareholders. AIIM is a division of Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI), and its IDEAS Fund is one of South Africa’s largest domestic infrastructure equity funds. Reatile is a successful strategic empowerment investor in renewables. ACED and AIIM’s affiliate, Energy Infrastructure Management Services (EIMS Africa) will now manage the project during operations. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, is the sole mandated lead arranger for the project.

Key project info includes:

  • Power Purchase Agreement Term: 15 years

  • 16 x Goldwind turbines, with a 6MW rated power for each, and a 110m hub height, meaning the turbines will stand 192.5m high at tip height.

  • Construction period of 22 months with Adenco Construction conducting electrical balance of plant and CSV Construction on civil engineering.

  • The project interconnects with the Eskom Hydra Main Transmission Substation, 25km away from the project site.

  • Castle provides Sibanye with cost-saving relative to prevailing Eskom utility rates, resulting in a significant cost saving for their SA operations.

  • Annual renewable energy supply of 309GWh (5.5% of Sibanye’s energy demand in South Africa).

  • Reduction of 321,000t CO2e annually (5.0% of Group scope 1 and 2 emissions) and mitigation of potential indirect associated carbon tax liabilities.

  • Local jobs and economic development opportunities created around the project site.

  • Equivalent to powering circa 120 000 homes.

Castle is one of two renewable energy projects that the ACED consortium and Sibanye are executing together, with the 140MW Umsinde Emoyeni Wind Farm (announced on the 30th of May 2024) being the other, and is due to reach commercial operation in late 2026.

James Cumming, CEO of ACED explains “We are pleased to bring Castle Wind Farm into operation for Sibanye and the project shareholders. Projects such as these require huge amounts of collaboration and cooperation between a vast array of stakeholders, and we are very grateful for the role played by all. Benefits extend way beyond ‘Buyer and Seller’, with renewables projects driving sustainable economic growth on a macro and micro level for SA, and we are very proud of this.”

“Reaching COD is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the extended teams of Sibanye-Stillwater, our partners AIIM, ACED and EIMS Africa as well as our appointed contractors. We could not have done it without their commitment and expertise. We are proud to be playing our role in South Africa’s energy transition and delivering sustainable energy solutions for South Africa” notes Sunette Smith, Business Development Executive of Reatile Group.

This project brings the total delivery by the ACED and EIMS Africa teams to over 600MW of hydro, wind and solar projects to financial close and construction in the last 24 months, enhancing the consortium’s collective drive to be a leader in renewable energy development and operation in South Africa and across the continent. This builds on over a gigawatt of projects they have already developed and operate via the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

ACED awarded the IJGlobal Sponsor of the Year (Africa) for realising innovative greenfield projects in renewable energy

6 March 2025

ACED has won a major international renewable energy award, for its innovative strategies to launch wind and hydro projects in SA and Eswatini.

ACED received the IJGlobal Sponsor of the Year (Africa) award at an award ceremony in London, for “driving a pipeline of transactions to financial close through innovation and adaptation alongside a bold strategy that establishes the sponsor as a key player for the future”. The IJGlobal Awards celebrate standout greenfield and refinancing deals across the global energy and infrastructure industry, and honours companies that drive important projects to successful conclusion.

ACED projects achieve global recognition

James Cumming, ACED’s CEO, said: “We are honoured to receive the prestigious IJGlobal award for our work in wind and hydro energy in Southern Africa. It’s a success we couldn’t have achieved without our valued shareholders, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) and the AIIM managed IDEAS Fund, as well as our sister asset management company, Energy Infrastructure Management Services (EIMS Africa), and all our project level co-shareholders, partners and offtakers. Large renewable energy projects such as these take phenomenal team effort and we thank all stakeholders involved, but especially our dedicated ACED team.”

ACED’s 2024 successes include the financial close of a cluster of 3 x 140MW (420MW) wind farms, all with private sector offtakers: Khangela Emoyeni, Umsinde Emoyeni and Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farms, as well as achieving Commercial Operation of SA’s first private offtake wind project; the 69MW Msenge Emoyeni Wind Farm and financial close of ACED’s first hydro project and first regional project; the 13.5MW Lower Maguduza Hydropower Project (LMHP) in Eswatini.

Umsinde Emoyeni’s offtaker, Sibanye-Stillwater, entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the project. It is one of three collaborations between ACED and Sibanye-Stillwater. With Khangela Emoyeni, an offtake agreement was executed with Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals in a record time of under four months from opening discussions. For Ishwati Emoyeni, the offtaker is NOA Group Trading, the first trading project of scale in South Africa. Together, the 420MW wind farm cluster amounts to over USD800mil. Construction is underway and commercial operation is expected in late 2026.

On the Msenge Emoyeni project, Sasol is the offtaker, having also entered into a 20-year PPA with the project. Highlighting ACED’s pioneering role in the industry, Msenge Emoyeni is the first private offtake wind farm to have reach financial close and commercial operation in South Africa and was completed in less than 18 months.

The offtaker for LMHP is the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC), Eswatini’s national utility, where a 30-year PPA has been executed. Construction is underway and due to be completed in early 2027.

More factors that contributed to ACED’s success

ACED is a leading South African renewable energy developer that has, since its inception in 2008, successfully spearheaded more than 1.8GW of renewable energy projects (70% wind, 30% PV), unlocking a capex value of over USD 2.3 billion. Their work spans almost 20 projects, with greenfield development to project deployment being a key differentiator.

Cumming further explained: “Getting projects shovel ready is in our DNA but it is the last few steps in achieving financial close a changing market that are especially complex and challenging. This is really due to the fledgling but rapidly developing state of the private offtake market in South Africa - meaning that there are yet to be any precedents or market norms developed, or at least there weren’t when we were closing these. This has meant that with ACED being at the helm of the market, we have had to help pioneer the structure and risk allocation of many of the commercial agreements with our offtakers, project shareholders and lenders. We have also applied unique capital structures and security packages in partnership with lenders to optimise the cost of power for offtakers while maintaining healthy returns for shareholders, all the while keeping bankability a foremost priority.”

ACED and EIMS Africa reach financial close on 140MW Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farm with NOA group Trading

24 February 2025

African Clean Energy Developments (“ACED”), Energy Infrastructure Management Services (“EIMS Africa”) and NOA Group Trading (“NOA”) are extremely pleased to announce that financial close has been reached, and construction commenced, on the 140MW Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farm, with NOA as the offtaker.

The project was led, co-sponsored and developed by ACED, with the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (“AIIM”) managed IDEAS Fund and Reatile as shareholders.  The IDEAS Fund is one of South Africa’s largest domestic infrastructure equity funds. Standard Bank South Africa acted as lead arranger.

NOA received its trading licence from NERSA on the 31st of January 2025, enabling the business to buy all the renewable energy generated by the Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farm.

The Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farm and the ACED-EIMS-IDEAS-Reatile generation consortium was the first sizeable renewable energy project to sign a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) with renewable energy aggregator, NOA. The Ishwati Emoyeni Wind Farm is a R4.9 billion project which will start generating electricity in 2026. The project comprises 32 Vestas 4.5MW wind turbines, and is adjacent to two of the consortium’s other projects of the same size: the Umsinde Emoyeni and Khangela Emoyeni Wind Farms.

“This marks the first large-scale renewable project in South Africa to reach financial close with an energy trader as the offtaker” said Karel Cornelissen, CEO of NOA Group. “With NOA Trading, the trading arm of NOA Group, now holding its trading licence, we are authorised to purchase electricity from Ishwati, other third-party IPPs and NOA’s own generation facilities, aggregate it, and wheel it through the Eskom grid to geographically dispersed offtakers across the South African market.”

“We’re delighted to have closed and commenced construction on this complex and pioneering project – the first trader offtake project at scale. It’s the long term PPAs we sign, such as that with NOA here, that bring these projects to life. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve NOA, so that they can in turn do so for their growing list of energy customers, all the while driving sustainable development and job creation – at the site locally, and where the renewable energy is used. Such is the power of the green electron!” said James Cumming, CEO of ACED.

“Reaching financial close on this wind project is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in South Africa. Together with our long-term partners AIIM, ACED and EIMS, we are propelling South Africa Inc. towards a sustainable future and energy security” said Sunette Smith, Business Development Executive of Reatile Group.

“Together with our partners, we are proud to be the sole mandated lead arranger to this first of a kind project, presenting a long-term solution and response to the market liberalisation in SA. NOA is facilitating not wind or solar energy to end users but rather a profile of green electrons achieved by aggregating multiple generators (wind, solar and battery projects) and providing this to multiple end users under more flexible arrangements” said Standard Bank Executive: Project Finance, Energy and Infrastructure Finance, Sherrill Byrne.

The project would not have been possible without the continuous support of shareholders, AIIM-managed, IDEAS Fund, and Reatile, along with Werksmans Attorneys, A&O Shearman, DLA Piper, Capic, Bastion and Lockton in their various capacities as advisors, all of whom were instrumental in achieving financial close on the project. ACED will continue to provide construction management services, whilst EIMS Africa will act as the operations phase management services provider to the project.

This deal marks the ACED and EIMS Africa teams having brought over 600MW of hydro, wind and solar projects to financial close and construction in the last 24 months, enhancing the consortium’s collective drive to be a leader in renewable energy development and operation in South Africa and across the continent. This is further to over a gigawatt of projects they have already developed and operate via the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

ESWATINI | 13.5 mw LOWER MAGUDUZA hydroelectric power project reaches financial close

23 January 2025

African Clean Energy Developments (ACED) and Energy Infrastructure Management Services (EIMS Africa) are thrilled to announce that financial close has been reached, and construction commenced, on the 13.5MW Lower Maguduza Hydro Power Project in Eswatini. The project was sponsored and developed by ACED, with the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) managed IDEAS Fund and the Eswatini Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF) as shareholders, and with strong support from Old Mutual Eswatini.

Working closely together, ACED and EIMS Africa have successfully brought the project to financial close. ACED will continue to provide construction management services, while EIMS Africa will act as both the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contractor, and the operating phase management services provider to the project. All energy produced by the project will be sold through a bilateral Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC).

“We are immensely proud to have achieved financial close and construction commencement on our first hydroelectric project, and our first project in Eswatini, in partnership with our very supportive shareholders, lenders, contractors, the EEC and all of our Eswatini partners and regulators. In addition to energy security for Eswatini, this project will also create jobs and support development locally,” said James Cumming, Chief Executive Officer of ACED.

Standard Bank South Africa acted as the lead arranger, with Standard Bank Eswatini, Standard Bank South Africa and PSPF providing the debt financing to the project. The continuous support of AIIM and Old Mutual Eswatini, along with Eaglestone, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, Pinsent Masons, Fasken, Bastion, AEVO, Lockton and DNV in their advisory capacities, were instrumental in achieving financial close for the project.

“This deal will unlock critical renewable energy development to support Eswatini’s energy security and access to affordable energy. It also assures the country’s steady journey towards reducing its reliance on traditional forms of energy and pivots it towards cleaner, sustainable sources of energy,” concludes Sherrill Byrne, Executive Vice President for Energy and Infrastructure at Standard Bank.

“We are pleased that this project has reached financial close and construction has commenced. It is a major milestone for the Fund to have concluded the first renewable energy project in Eswatini which aims to put the country on a course to energy self-sufficiency. There are a couple of positive spin-offs for this project which includes job creation, industrialization, and above all maximization of income for the Fund,” said Mr Masotja Vilakati, Chief Executive Officer of the PSPF. 

This deal marks the ACED and EIMS Africa teams having brought about 500MW of hydro, wind and solar projects to financial close in the last 24 months, enhancing the consortium’s collective drive to be a leader in renewable energy development and operation in South Africa and across the continent. This is further to the gigawatt of projects they have already developed and operate via the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

 

BUSINESS ESSENTIALS - GREEN ECONOMY magazine, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ARTICLE

October 2023: Solving the power crisis in SA | Business Essentials

BUSINESS ESSENTIALS - youtube channel

August 2023: African Clean Energy Developments | Green Economy video interview