The bank’s financing, a concessional loan, will come from the Clean Technology Fund, a multi-donor trust fund under the Climate Investment Funds. In addition, the pioneering Battery Energy Storage Systems Project is being co-financed with the World Bank and the New Development Bank.

The project involves the development of 200MW of battery storage with four hours of energy storage capacity per day, or 800MW in total, at seven sites in South Africa’s Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

The project also contributes to South Africa’s ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution, in compliance with the Paris climate agreement.