The acquisition of BTE Renewables by Meridiam and Engie is doubly important for the French energy company. With this operation, it will double its production capacity in wind and solar electricity in South Africa; it is also substantially enriching its portfolio of projects under development, which stands at 80,000 megawatts (MW) internationally.
In detail, Engie and the Meridiam infrastructure fund are preparing to pay several hundred million euros to buy BTE from Actis, another infrastructure fund. The two buyers share the assets of BTE. Meridiam acquires Kenyan assets, namely 250 MW of production capacity and projects under development.
For its part, Engie acquires the assets of BTE Renewables in South Africa, i.e. 340 MW of solar (190 MW) and wind farms (150 MW) to which are added 3,000 MW of projects, most of which are close to the marketing phase. .
“South Africa is one of the countries in which we have chosen to strengthen our presence for three main reasons, explains Pierre Guiollot, finance and strategy director for Engie’s renewable activities. It is a market of significant size, with 60,000 MW of installed capacity. It must begin its energy transition, since it depends largely on coal (about 84% of electricity production) and also meet the need for stability in the country’s electricity supply”. Engie also plans to develop battery storage systems to respond to the intermittency of solar and wind electricity production. An essential shift to meet climate challenges.
South Africa is indeed aiming to gradually disengage from coal. Pretoria wants to reduce the electricity production capacity of coal-fired power plants by 11,000 MW and install 23,000 MW of renewable energy by 2030. The country has many assets: space, sun and wind. .. But he has to deal with an aging electrical network.
