Africa Renewable Energy Fund II raises EUR 130m for first close

The Africa Renewable Energy Fund II has raised EUR 130 million (USD 154m) for its first close, securing funds for investments in early-stage renewable energy projects in Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Friday.

The 10-year closed-ended private equity fund, managed by Berkeley Energy, will focus on “green baseload” projects, including hydro, solar, wind and battery storage technologies.

Investors include development finance institutions CDC Group of the UK, Italy’s CDP, the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), SwedFund, France’s Proparco, as well as the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and the Climate Technology Fund (CTF), which have provided a joint investment of EUR 17.5 million through AfDB. Proparco and SwedFund said they have each invested EUR 15 million.

According to the announcements, the fund seeks to raise a total of EUR 300 million and will support projects of between 10 MW and 100 MW across sub-Saharan Africa.

“The catalytic tranche from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa and the Climate Technology Fund will assist in mobilising private institutional investors up to full fund size of EUR 300 million,” said Berkeley Energy’s managing director Luka Buljan.

SEFA will also provide financing for the AREF II Project Support Facility.

AREF II succeeds the original AREF that AfDB selected Berkeley Energy to set up in 2012.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.186)

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