Investing
SA’s renewable energy programme a winner with investors
There have been pockets of clear investment success in SA – like its highly regarded renewable energy independent power producer programme
There have been pockets of clear investment success in SA — like its highly regarded renewable energy independent power producer programme (REIPPP). Though it spent three years on ice between 2015 and 2018, the initial rounds of the programme, up until 2014, saw SA rake in more investment in four years than the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa had in two decades, according to energy expert Anton Eberhard. SA’s programme put Norwegian company Scatec Solar "on the map", says its GM and vice-president of project development for Sub-Saharan Africa, Jan Fourie, a South African. SA, he says, was "instrumental in our global success. It gave us the platform to list and subsequently we’ve grown all over emerging markets." Fourie says many people complain about SA, "how bad the government is and how horrible that is, and then I sit there thinking: ‘Well, I know we’re a bit of an outlier, but SA has been great for us.’" Scatec employs nearly 120 people. "The best thing about it is we don’t have a si...
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