The African Renewable Energy Fund (AREF) successfully reached its final close at its hard cap, with $200 million of committed capital to support small to medium scale projects, with investment at the final close from European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), among other investors.
African Development Bank (AfDB) is the fund’s lead sponsor, bringing $55 million in an equity investment package from its statutory resources as well as climate finance instruments such as Sustainable Energy for Africa (SEFA) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to leverage commercial and institutional investment. SEFA has additionally committed a $10-million Project Support Facility (PSF), which will provide resources to be deployed at an early stage to structure bankable deals.
The fund, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, held its first close of $100 million in March 2014 and since that time has been investing capital in grid-connected development stage renewable energy projects including small hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, and biomass.
AREF is the first dedicated sub-Saharan African renewable energy fund and is managed by Berkeley Energy, a fund manager focused on developing and investing in renewable energy projects in emerging markets. Berkeley Energy also manages dedicated renewable energy funds in Asia. Berkeley Energy has more than 30 staff in 5 offices globally, shortly expanding into West Africa.
The final investor group also includes West African Development Bank (BOAD), Ecowas Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), FMO, Calvert Investments, CDC Group, BIO, OeEB ― the Development Bank of Austria, Wallace Global Fund, Sonen Capital, Berkeley Energy, ABREC and now the European Investment Bank, the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund, and a number of other private investors.
AfDB had originally selected Berkeley Energy as the fund manager for AREF following a global competitive procedure and with the fund having reached its hard cap as well as successfully closing a number of transactions in its initial period, Berkeley Energy has justified the AfDB’s selection. The Berkeley Energy team comprises Managing Partner TC Kundi; Partner Alastair Vere Nicoll; Chairman Andrew Reicher; Investment Director and AREF lead Luka Buljan, Project Director David Hastings; and Investment Committee members Thierno Bocar Tall, Chief Executive Officer of ABREC; and Eddie Njoroge, former Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Electricity Generating Company (Kengen).
Berkeley Energy’s Partner and Co-Founder, Alastair Vere Nicoll said: “We are very pleased to have reached our target fund raising and look forward to continuing our work focusing on the technical delivery of our projects with our project partners from concept to generating reality”.
