Sourced from REVE South Africa’s embattled national power utility Eskom has new plans to issue a $58 million (R1 billion) sukuk bond in a bid to diversify funding sources as borrowing costs rise. According to spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Eskom has appointed a new lead arranger “to work towards establishing timelines for the issue.” The power utility currently has over R450 billion in debt and has yet to announce further plans to ask the South African governments for additional capital injections. What is a sukuk? According to IOL, a sukuk is a Shariah-compliant investment and an attractive alternative to conventional bonds. For all intents and purposes a sukuk – Arabic for ‘investment certificate’ – is issued for the purpose of raising money for utilisation within a corporation or ...
Sourced from The Times UK. A shift from Africa’s traditional approach to power generation is needed to unleash the continent’s clean energy potential and secure an African future free from blackouts. A strategy centred around energy storage and flexible power systems will be the key to guaranteeing the reliability of a high-renewable grid, while also lowering the cost of electricity for Africans. As Africa’s economies and populations steadily grow, so too does the demand for reliable electricity. Simply put, new power plants need to be built, and the reliability of electrical systems needs to be vastly improved. But here is the challenge: How can African countries build an electrical system that can both integrate a large amount of inexpensive but intermittent renewable energy, while at th...