Month: June 2024

14 June 2024: Studying Law was not necessarily her first career choice but today she is the General Counsel for a renewable energy company. Growing up, Clémentine had always seen herself being an Engineer, whilst life had other plans studying Law seemed like the fitting choice. “I chose to study Law because it is quite comparable and it’s logical reasoning,” says Clémentine.

Her passion for travel and learning about different cultures made her aware of early discrepancies around the world, which brought her to projects and then renewables. “To refresh my mind after studies travelling was my go-to activity, it still is, with my family. Travelling the world and discovering new cultures is an eye-opening experience. From an early age this made me aware that access to energy is key for economic development,” she adds.

For Clémentine, moving into the renewable energy industry was written in the stars as she had been exposed to the industry in every step of her journey. From the time she kickstarted her career at a law firm – she chose one specialising in renewables – that is when she got a glimpse of what life at a renewable energy company would be like. She then transitioned into banking to finance renewable projects.

Three years ago, Clémentine took a leap of faith and moved to Norway to advance her career, starting as Senior Legal Counsel at Scatec. This marked the beginning of her journey at Release, where she eventually became General Counsel.

It was definitely no coincidence that she was going to end up working in the renewable energy sector.

The transition to the renewable energy industry was not a difficult decision for her to make, “I am an early believer in renewables so applying to Scatec was a natural fit for me because I had heard of the great things Scatec is doing in is markets mainly in Africa and I had previously got a glimpse of what working in the industry would look like,” she says.

Today, Clémentine wears many hats in her role but takes on the responsibility of ensuring consistency in Release’s contract policy and alignment with Scatec’s, abidance to Release’s governance rules and helping smooth coordination among the various functions across the company as the Legal department has the broad overview of the company’s activities and their respective calendar.

“The traditional IPP model doesn’t work for all the markets, now Release brings a technology solution that allows you to rent solar and energy storage power without the need for large capital investments and the long-term commitments,” says the General Counsel.

Clémentine added that Release has a start-up feel to it, which means that there is close collaboration among teams, giving you the opportunity to sink your teeth into the different happenings within the organisation.

Clémentine considers herself as being fortunate for working with people who are passionate about the work that they do and share a common vision in creating a sustainable future for all.  Release may be a small team – spread across 4 different locations around the world, but there is so much diversity within the team. The team building held in the beginning of the year in Cape Town, South Africa was a true testament of the cultural diversity.

She says that she hopes to see steady growth for Release in the coming years and it brings numerous growth opportunities for those within the company and to see new, enthusiastic talent coming in.

10 June 2024, Cameroon/Norway: Release by Scatec has entered into two new lease agreements with the national electricity company ENEO in Cameroon, expanding its existing solar and battery storage power plants in the country to 64.4 MW of solar and 38.2 MWh of batteries.

Release completed the already existing solar plants in Maroua and Guider in Cameroon (35.8 MW solar and 19 MWh BESS) in September 2023, and is now adding 28.6 MW of solar and 19.2 MWh of battery storage.  The Maroua and Guider solar power plants are based on the innovative Release solution of movable panels and batteries, which are deployed under a simple and flexible leasing contract. Release has available funding for these projects based on the capital raise completed last year when Climate Fund Managers came in as equity investor with 32% ownership stake.

“This extension is a testimony to the success of the initial projects and to the benefits provided by our innovative offering. By increasing the installed capacity in the country, we are reaffirming our collaboration with ENEO and our commitment to Cameroon as a key market for our solutions,” says Hans Olav Kvalvaag, CEO at Release.

“In addition to improving electricity supply in Cameroon and significantly reducing the cost and CO2 emissions from alternative generation based on diesel supply, these pioneering leasing contracts with ENEO are serving as a model for access to affordable clean energy for other countries and large energy consumers in the region. We have the funding available to support significant growth and expect to close and start implementing several additional projects from our pipeline in the coming months,” adds Kvalvaag,

When the extensions of the projects are completed, Release’s projects in totality will supply energy to about 200,000 households in Cameroon, according to ENEO estimates, generating an annual production of about 141.5 GWh of electricity. In combination with the storage capacity the installation will ensure stable supply of electricity also during peak hours.

“ENEO Cameroon has renewed its trust in its partner Release by Scatec to double the capacity of the solar power plants in Guider and Maroua. This move will enable Eneo to further secure power generation in the Northern regions while also improving service quality for households and the industrial sector in these regions. This new step towards more reliable and carbon-free energy is part of Eneo’s strategy, which is central to its continued efforts, under the auspices of the Government of Cameroon, to sustainably improve on the power available in Cameroon,” according to Amine Homman Ludiye, CEO of ENEO Cameroon.

“Our successful partnership with Release by Scatec has greatly benefited the local population in northern Cameroon by eliminating blackouts. This new project will further reduce our dependency on diesel and save the government millions of dollars in fuel costs,” says H.E. Gaston Eloundou Essomba, Minister of Water and Energy, Republic of Cameroon.

The projects were originally developed in partnership with Izuba Energy and Sphinx Energy.

Contact:
Hans Olav Kvalvaag, CEO Release, tel: +47 90 17 13 18, hans.olav.kvalvaag@scatec.com

About Release
Designed to overcome financial and technical barriers associated with adopting solar energy, Release is a flexible leasing agreement of pre-assembled solar PV and battery equipment to deliver a low cost, clean, and reliable power solution. Release is owned by Scatec ASA (68%) and Climate Investor One (32%), an impact investment fund managed by Climate Fund Managers.

06 June 2024: Release CEO, Hans Olav Kvalvaag, attended the Energising Africa: What Will it Take to Achieve Universal Energy Access? Spring Meetings event 2024 held in Washington DC hosted by The World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

This year’s Spring Meetings gathered development partners, private sector representatives and country ministers from around the world where they discussed opportunities on how to energize Africa and what it will take to achieve universal access in the continent to unlock opportunities that will grow the economies. Release is well-aligned with the conversations that took place at the event, which stress the urgent need for powering up Africa.

Studies show that close to 600 million people are living without electricity in Africa. Access to electricity is a fundamental human right, without access to reliable electricity there is little to no economic growth and the region will not be able to reach its set development targets.

The World Bank Group together with the African Development Bank Group have partnered up to provide at least 300 million people in Africa with electricity by the year 2030. The World Bank Group has committed to providing electricity access for 250 million people through renewable energy systems or the distribution grid, the African Development Group will support the additional 50 million.

The commitments that have been made reiterate the urgent need to electrify Africa to unlock its potential.

Africa is one of Release’s key focus markets, it has experienced much traction in the continent, mainly in the utilities sector. Hence our participation at this year’s Powering Africa event was crucial as it gave us the opportunity to share our expertise on how we can ramp up the energy transition in the continent.

Our CEO was part of a panel discussion that focused on collaborative solutions between the public and private sectors in delivering energy access solutions. “Technology is not the issue, the solar and battery revolution that we are currently seeing is giving us plenty of opportunities to deliver efficient solutions for electrifying any place in Africa,” says our CEO. The conventional IPP model does not work for all economies. That is where the simplified, flexible, rental model comes in that addresses all the challenges that are faced with structuring.

Release has an innovative technology solution; its approach is to distributed generation solar PV and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for projects beginning from 5MWp blocks. The technology solution comprises od pre-assembled moveable trackers and storage units. The equipment is pre-funded through a non-complex leasing agreement that lasts between 5 to 15 years. The flexibility that this solution brings ensures competitive pricing while maintaining high-quality service and technology.

Release has projects in operation in operation and under construction in Cameroon, South Sudan, South Africa, Mexico and South Sudan with a total capacity with a total capacity of 47 MW solar PV and 20 MWh of battery storage and has additional contracts for 35 MW solar PV and 20 MWh of storage in Chad, in addition to its maturing pipeline.

Our goal at Release is to actively engage in conversations that aim to accelerate the energy transition in the African continent. Leveraging our projects, our flagship projects being in Cameroon, we aim to show that impactful change is possible and can happen swiftly. Our key markets hold much untapped potential that serve as catalysts for the African continent’s development.