“A future powered by clean, affordable, and reliable energy solutions driving sustainable development across Africa.” That’s how Terje Osmundsen, one of the early pioneers of solar energy in Africa, describes the vision of Empower New Energy.
A political scientist of education, Terje played an active role back in the early 1980s shaping the future of Norway’s petroleum policy when he served as Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister. With his deep interest in environment and development, it’s no coincidence that he soon became an advocate for climate action and development. His engagement with solar and Africa started in the then newly established company Scatec Solar (now Scatec) back in 2009. After eight years of successfully developing large-scale solar projects in South Africa, Egypt and other emerging markets, the then 60-year-old seasoned entrepreneur and business leader decided to make a further career shift. Together with his co-founders, Alexander Pedersen and Susie Cook, they launched Empower New Energy with a mission to bridge the finance gap that held back the deployment of solar energy for enterprises and communities across Africa.
Empower New Energy (Empower) is not only an investor, but works closely as a co-developer with the project partners preparing and de-risking the projects before investing. The company’s unique platform allows for a lean and efficient due diligence process significantly speeding up the deployment of solar energy for companies, supporting decarbonised growth across Africa.
The company owns and operates roof and ground-mounted solar plants in target markets within Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, and is currently also maturing solar investment opportunities in Tunisia, Cameroon, Zambia.
Impact
Africa’s businesses suffer from the world’s highest electricity costs, and this continent is the only region where the share of renewables in the energy mix has been at a standstill since the signing of the Paris Agreement six years ago. The share of hydropower, solar and wind in the continent’s electricity generation is still below 20%. As a result, Africa has become even more dependent on coal, natural gas and diesel to meet its fast-growing demand for power, fuels that not only are polluting but also have become ever more expensive. Large utility-scale renewable projects are important to address this challenge, but take years to develop, finance and build. In contrast, decentralised solar can be developed and built in less than a year, and is therefore essential if Africa is to meet its development and decarbonisation targets.
While sharing insights into his motivations and vision for establishing Empower New Energy, Mr Osmundsen highlighted how Africa has become highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events such as drought, floods, and storms. Additionally, he noted how the continent’s businesses are facing challenges such as costly and unreliable electricity, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. “This has affected health, education and wellbeing of communities, impacting people’s livelihoods and countries’ economic growth.”
This is despite Africa’s unique opportunities for renewable energy investments, as it holds approximately 60% of the world’s solar energy potential, yet as of 2022, it accounts for less than 1% of global solar installations. This vast untapped potential highlights a significant opportunity to harness renewable energy sources such as solar power, which can provide clean, sustainable electricity across the continent.
In addition, the continent’s often over-burdened grids, coupled with a reliance on diesel backup generators is a significant pollution factor and economic burden. In Nigeria alone, the government estimates the cost of operating the diesel generators to 20 Trillion Naira annually, equal to more than 1.3 Billion dollars. Currently, there are over 20 million diesel backup generators in Africa, equivalent to 150-gigawatt capacity or 250 – 300 large coal power stations, contributing to over 20 % of Africa’s total energy and industry-related CO2 emissions
Mr Osmundsen noted that shifting towards renewable energy will help mitigate these emissions, aligning with global climate goals and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “By investing in renewable energy, particularly decentralised systems like solar PV and wind, communities can also enhance their resilience to these climate risks, ensuring continuity in periods of disruptions of infrastructure services.
This transition for the continent is crucial as international markets are increasingly penalising products and services with high carbon footprints, thereby protecting Africa’s export competitiveness and creating sustainable economic growth.
Moreover, replacing expensive fossil fuel imports with domestically sourced renewable resources is expected to reduce energy import bills and enhance energy security. This will free up financial resources that can be redirected towards other development priorities such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
Partnerships
Empower has mobilised investment capital from a consortium of highly recognized private and public financiers, led by the global blended finance manager, Climate Fund Managers(CFM) as well as Norfund, the Norwegian Fund for Development. “By partnering with a platform like Empower, large financiers like CFM and Norfund are able to invest in multiple high-impact renewable energy projects that individually are too small for the international investors,” Osmundsen says.
As an example, he cites the partnership between Empower and Miniplast, a plastic manufacturing company in Ghana that resulted in the implementation of a 700-kW peak solar energy project. This transition towards sustainable power further sparked Miniplast’s drive to pioneer plastic recycling, securing international funding for recycling facilities powered by rooftop solar.
Among Empowers also partners with Nuts for Growth, a new Ghanaian business processing shea nuts and soyabeans for export. Empower provides financing to build and operate a 1.2 MW rooftop solar plant that will secure clean, reliable and low-cost electricity for the company, saving more than 800 tons of CO₂ equivalents per year while at the same time supporting 300 new jobs and significantly improving the revenues for thousands of women collecting shea nuts.
Morocco is another important market for Empower. In 2023 the company successfully commissioned a $2 million investment in rooftop solar installations at four agro-processing plants for the local company Zalar Holding. The plants with a combined capacity of 2.5 MWp generate 3.76 GWh of clean energy annually and is estimated to avoid approximately 37 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.
Empower also invests in solar with battery storage. In Nigeria the company recently commissioned ten pioneering rooftop solar plants with battery storage system (BESS) for Justrite Superstores, the leading neighbourhood retail supermarket chain in Nigeria – a first of its kind in the West African supermarket chain space. The investment allows Justrite Superstores to meet up to 85% of its energy needs with clean electricity generated on its roofs
Future prospects
Although the company relies on local project engineering and construction companies to execute the projects, Empower New Energy still needs essential in-house talent.
“We have built a team of 25 with 15 different nationalities who work seamlessly from seven different locations, including offices in West Africa, East Africa, and North Africa.”
Looking ahead, Mr Osmundsen said Empower is preparing a pipeline of projects that can be expanded with high-integrity carbon credits, offering a unique blend of climate action and economic and social developments. “By pursuing our plan to invest more than 150 MUSD into decentralised solar power over the next two years, we not only serve our project partners, but we are supporting the creation of thousands of new jobs whilst simultaneously cutting greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 500,000 of CO2 by 2030”
For updated articles, blogs, podcasts and videos on the latest Empower New Energy projects together with investment news, case studies and contact details, please visit the company website: https://www.empowernewenergy.com/