Release by Scatec CEO at Spring Meetings 2024

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.