Africa

CVE has designed RespeeR, a Business to Business solar power offer plan that can either provide an interface to generator sets (called diesel-solar hybridization), or complement a connection to the local electricity grid.

Thanks to RespeeR, our green energy offer, we contribute to the competitiveness of companies in Africa through the supply of competitive photovoltaic energy produced directly on site, notably through private PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements).

We are targeting three areas of interest:

• South Africa: creation of the CVE South Africa subsidiary in 2020 in Johannesburg
• West Africa: Senegal
• East Africa: Kenya

We offer solar power to industrial firms that are isolated or connected to unreliable power grids, supplementing the energy they consume from diesel engines.

The electricity challenges for industrial companies in African countries are significant:  because of the high price of electricity, the unforeseen annual increases and the electric grid instability that lead to regular outages disrupting plant processes.

We focus on energy-intensive, processing industries (like food processing and plastics), shopping malls, and large hotel complexes.

CVE relies on local partners to accelerate its knowledge and penetration of the local market. In Senegal, CVE is developing a portfolio of PPA RespeeR projects with a combined capacity of nearly 20 MWp with its local partner Senemeca. In South Africa, CVE has signed a portfolio of 3 corporate PPA RespeeR projects with the real estate developer Spear with a combined capacity of 1.7 MWp. CVE also acquired a 1 MWp solar power plant for a Pick & Pay shopping mall.

The RespeeR green energy supply offer allows to cover between 20 and 50% of the total energy consumed onsite. For these industrial sites, using our hybrid power solutions in Africa has three benefits:

• Lowering their carbon footprint by reducing the consumption of fossil fuels
• Increasing their energy competitiveness by reducing their power bill
• Partially offsetting the economic and logistical risks of fuel procurement

The offer does not require any investment because CVE’s model is based on private electricity sales contracts  with terms of up to 20 years.