Testimonials
LULAMA TLAKULA Investment Director, EISER Infrastructure
There could be so more much renewable energy projects and the use of renewable energy as an energy source across the continent. Having done deals on the African continent, one knows that they generally take quite a while to reach financial close. And so programs such as the Scaling Solar program are quite key in terms of making sure that deals can come to market and reach financial close and so that infrastructure can become a reality.
“I find Scaling Solar is a very good initiative, as we often talk to governments that are struggling to cope with the pace of their energy needs, when implementing such tenders.”
Massimiliano Vernaleone International Development Director, Solar Capital Pty (Ltd)
Raymond Mpundu
Zambian Deputy Minister of Commerce
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We are very excited that we are the first out of South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa. We are going to be a very good model. So there will be a learning point. So we are inviting everybody to come over to Zambia and see what we have done, and how we’re working with the World Bank and the other partners. And also the interest that this whole thing has generated country-wide because we’re talking of having world class bidders who have come. This is the way to go. Because, first of all, it is super quick to get the investment going and to have the power that we require so the gestation period, in terms of investment, is very short.
Alasdair Miller
Senior Energy Specialist, International Finance Corporation
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We’re genuinely doing something very innovative here — trying to standardize solar IPPs, which has never really been effectively done, and rolling in all these different World Bank Group products. You’ve got the stapled financing from IFC. You’ve got partial risk guarantees from the Bank, political risk insurance from MIGA and then the IFC advisory bit wrapping it all together. It is a coherent package that can be quickly deployed in suitable countries that want to do this. And I think the big argument is the success that we’re having so far in Zambia. There was a huge response from the private sector. We had 48 bids and 48 bids from good quality companies. We’ve narrowed it down to the 11 qualified bidders, which are all sort of top tier global companies. And the government, or IDC, is already talking about Round Two.
Andrew Chipwende
CEO, Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia
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For quite a long time, we’ve had quite a bit of interest from the private sector in terms of investing in renewable energy in general, and in solar in particular. We haven’t had the coherent structure within which to implement this. I think with Scaling Solar, what we’ve been able to do is to develop a coherent, transparent process that the investor and investing public, the private sector, are able to work towards as well as the public institutions on the government side — that is, the IDC as investment vehicle and the state utility as off-taker, to have predictability and to have a clearly defined process that should be followed towards the attainment of this 600 megawatt target which has been set for renewable energy in Zambia.
Paul Siame
E.D. of Operations, Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia
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The Scaling Solar initiative is a World Bank Group solar development program which the Industrial Development Corporation, which is an investment arm of the government, has adopted in order to address the energy crisis. For us in Zambia, this is definitively an innovative idea. We would like to implement it in full and probably even have more than the 600 megawatts which we’re targeting now.
Constantin Hatzilambros
Director,
Mulilo Renewable Energy
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What is most impressive is actually how quickly it all was put together. As well as the quality of the documentation, the guarantees — the whole package was just a first class package, which is easy to take to your lenders and to your board and get approval for it. We believe solar is the best technology to use due to the price reductions and increasing efficiencies as well as the quick time-frame to get on line.
Julian Jackson
Principal Counsel, International Finance Corporation
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You’ve got a unique pre-packaged product where we say: all the documentation is here, so you can sign up to these documents as the government and you, as the private sector, should be comfortable signing up to these documents as well. These documents are bankable. To the extent that IFC as a potential investor in the project — should the sponsors want financing from IFC — IFC has said ‘we will, everything else being equal, fund this project if you become the winning bidder.’ So on Day One, when bidders are looking at the documentation, they can basically work on the assumption that this project and these documents are bankable. That is completely unique. Another unique feature of the Scaling Solar product is that the World Bank is involved and can offer a partial risk guarantee, effectively underwriting the obligations of the government. And that gives a huge amount of comfort to sponsors and financiers who are looking to raise financing for the project. It’s a major bankability advantage.
“IFC Scaling Solar program has the ability to transform the continent into being at the forefront of growth of green economy.”
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay Founder and Chairman, Acme Group, India
Jason Lee
Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
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The Scaling Solar initiative is a program that creates a whole suite of World Bank Group solutions packaged in one solution for governments to help attract investment in solar power development. We wanted to makes this as simple as possible both for investors and for governments to attract investment. As you may know, Zambia has really been struggling in terms of power generation. They’ve had quite a big deficit in power generation and one of the ways that they want to address that is through Solar PV. One of the benefits of Solar PV is that it’s a very quick technology that we can implement and get megawatts into the grid as soon as possible.
Vahid Fotuhi
Managing Director of Project Origination, Access Power
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Scaling Solar is a like dream come true for developers. The beauty of it is you have IFC, with all its depth of experience, that takes all of the important project documents and makes them fully bankable before the tender begins. So when developers like us show up, we don’t have to drastically reformat the documents. Everything is in perfect shape, perfectly bankable and making our lives super easy. Solar makes perfect sense here in Africa. Look across the continent. The sun is shining. It’s beautiful. You have rain, which enables you to clean the systems properly. And it overcomes the whole issue of lack of grid. We hope that Scaling Solar can be replicated across the continent because if it does, it will go a long way toward mitigating the problem of having over 600 million people without access to electricity.
Ashwin West
Investment Principal, African Infrastructure Investment Managers
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As an investor, as a potential financial investor, what Scaling Solar offers is a robust process, contracts which have been pre-negotiated and which are considered bankable — and which are ultimately going to be bankable — and transparency and speed. For us as investors, that’s exactly what we’re looking for. For countries that are looking to develop or adopt a solar program, I think this is absolutely the way to go because the IFC is providing this framework that has obviously been tweaked for the specifics of each country, but which provides a really robust framework and will create confidence in the market and then investors and developers will flock to those countries.
Charles Mkokweza
Managing Partner, Corpus Legal Practitioners
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I’m happy to see that the Scaling Solar project is progressing and is progressing very well. I would recommend that most African countries that are facing power issues should actually go Scaling Solar if they want to implement a project in a very certain, predictable and effective manner.
Marie-Astrid De Montmarin
Project Manager, EDF Energies Nouvelles, France
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The Scaling Solar initiative is an opportunity to invest safely in Africa because of the bankability of the project documents, because of all of the frame of the project. It is very interesting for international companies because it’s matched with international standards. So for us, it’s easier to come in Africa. We have good conditions for investing. I think the Scaling Solar initiative is very good for the countries because it helps them understand what private investment needs. What we need to find in a power purchase agreement, what we need to find in support of the government. The Scaling Solar initiative is really helping the country to start the market.
Javier de la Cruz
Delegate
Cobra Energia South Africa
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We’ve got already two PV projects in South Africa, and one CSP under construction so far. So all those projects have been constructed on a consortium basis in order to strengthen our commitment with the local partners.
Ashwin West, Investment Principle AIIM South Africa
It’s being run by the IFC, so there’s a good process in place. And they’re providing a suite of contracts which have been reviewed and are considered bankable. So the process has been simplified. And it’s transparent. And it’s well run. So from our prospective, we like to participate in to those sort of programs which aren’t going to be challenged at some point, procurement issues and those sorts of things. That’s the reason we’re here and what we like about it.
“Scaling Solar is an absolutely great initiative because you’re taking a lot of the risk out of the project upfront.”
Raymond Carlsen CEO, Scatec Solar
Pamela Siame Musepa
Procurement, Industrial Development Corporation Zambia
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What really excites me under the Scaling Solar project is it’s happening in Zambia for the first time. Our population has struggled since independence, and clearly the demand for energy is much more. And everybody really now is looking towards solar. Because one good thing about it is it’s clean energy.
Sajade Shahidpour
International Business Development, NEOEN
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The bidders here are quite interested. We are definitely motivated and not only for the Scaling Solar initiative by itself. More than that, there is a real initiative on behalf of the Zambian authorities. They have shown, and they have testified for, their determination to implement this program quickly, if only for the structural reasons regarding the access to energy. And we are quite pleased to be involved in projects in which we really see this, let’s say, drive and push from the side of the authorities.
Soumya Banerjee
Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
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Scaling Solar is conceived as a one-stop shop to bring bidders and governments together at one platform. The bidders get practically a very well negotiated and standardized document up front, and they don’t have to spend hours of legal time trying to renegotiate, and they also get certainty in terms of time-frame because the government comes upfront and says that these are documents we’re willing to sign. What the bidders really have to do is pick up the documents, look at the specific site, make sure that their technical solution is in place and adequate to deliver what the government needs out of it, and after that, put in the most competitive bid. What Scaling Solar is trying to do is it essentially de-risks the path to completing the financing for the project, and to get to project completion and construction as soon as possible.
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Partners
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Government of Korea
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The Private Infrastructure Development Group
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Government of the United Kingdom
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USAID's Power Africa Initiative
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Government of the Netherlands
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Government of Denmark