Engie acquires the activities of BTE Renewables in South Africa

The French group, historically focused on gas, but in full diversification, has not communicated the amount for which it is buying these activities from the English investment fund Actis.

"The acquisition of BTE will provide Engie with 340MW net of renewable and operational capacity (150MW of onshore wind and 190MW of photovoltaic solar)", specifies in a press release the group, which currently operates 315 MW of renewable assets in Africa. from South.

Added to this is a “portfolio of more than 3GW of projects in the advanced development phase”, specifies the press release.

These 3GW will be gradually accounted for in Engie's production capacity "by 2028, 2030", the strategy and finance director of Engie's renewable activities Pierre Guiollot told AFP, who sees it as a "long-term investment". breath" "extremely significant".

Engie, the leading wind and solar energy operator in France and fourth in Europe, is aiming for annual growth of 4 GW until 2025, then 6 GW over 2026-2030 to reach 80 GW in 2030 worldwide.

The acquisition of these assets - two relating to wind power in the south of the country and three solar parks in the north and north-west - constitutes a "very important step" in the strengthening and development of the group in South Africa, indicated Ms. Guiollot.

Despite "its energy instability", "it is a country in which we believe very deeply", he added, well aware of the "two enormous structural challenges" which South Africa will have to face: "to decarbonize 'assets which emit a lot of CO2', due to its old-generation coal-fired power stations, 'and then gain in stability and reliability'.

South Africa, the continent's leading industrial power, is indeed in the grip of a deep electricity crisis which has worsened since last year. For months, the 60 million South Africans have hardly experienced a day without a scheduled power cut.

The state-owned company, Eskom, provides the vast majority of electricity. But weighed down by dilapidated coal-fired power plants and crippled with debt after the years of corruption of the Jacob Zuma presidency (2009-2018), the company is unable to meet demand and is imposing scheduled cuts.