Chariot Limited, the Africa-focused transitional energy group, has noted the British International Investment (BII) and GuarantCo announcing a US$100 million guarantee finance facility for Etana Energy (Pty) Limited, the South African electricity trading platform owned by Chariot (49%) and H1 Holdings (Pty) Limited (51%).

 Etana’s business model is to provide competitive, sustainable end-to-end power solutions through the connection of power generation projects to commercial and industrial users by wheeling electricity across South Africa’s national grid.

According to Chariot, BII and GuarantCo will each provide US$50 million of default guarantee finance on behalf of Etana in South Africa’s largest “energy wheeling framework” transaction

 The innovative deal is designed to guarantee customer demand to enable new renewable power by providing developers with the revenue certainty needed to break ground on new projects

The US$100 million in guarantee financing has the potential to unlock an estimated US$500 million of new renewable developments, equating to a total generation capacity of circa 500MW from wind and solar projects.

“Securing such substantial guarantees from these multi-national financing institutions provides strong validation of Etana’s business model. Being a business that we co-founded, this endorses Chariot’s strategy to diversify into different types of assets and regions where we see rapid, scalable growth under the umbrella of transitional energy in Africa.

These guarantees are the important first stage of the ongoing financing process required for the bankability of Etana which is being carried out at the subsidiary level.” Adonis Pouroulis, CEO of Chariot, commented.