Transitioning towards clean energy

Targeting a net-zero future: 

Through our strategic partnership with a team of seasoned renewable energy veterans, we established NOA Group Holdings, a South African independent power producer (IPP) and energy trader, in December 2022. Our ambition with NOA is to facilitate South Africa’s transition towards a net-zero future by supplying businesses with clean, cost-effective renewable energy.  

The timing of NOA’s establishment was strategic, given the intense loadshedding and deepening national electricity capacity crisis in South Africa at the end of 2022. We capitalised on the regulatory shift in July 2022, which allowed private entities to self-generate electricity without a license and connect to the national grid in order to supply multiple customers via wheeling arrangements.  

Wheeling involves transmitting electricity using transmission lines which the entity does not own. Through NOA we played a pivotal role in pioneering the aggregation business model, combining a dispersed portfolio of wind, solar and battery storage assets to distribute power to multiple customers via a single trading interface. This approach supports the rapid scaling up of renewable adoptions while addressing the needs of commercial and industrial users. 

Our approach delivers a host of benefits, including: 

  • Enhanced reliability and renewable penetration through the blending of generation profiles from geographically and technologically diverse assets. 
  • Giving consumers access to economies of scale. We enable smaller energy consumers to benefit from large, utility-scale wind and solar projects at South Africa’s best renewable resource sites. 
  • Contracting flexibility. By offering power purchase agreements for as short as one year – a far cry from the typically 15-year (or more) contracts in the market – our investment in NOA effectively lowers the barriers to entry for commercial and industrial customers. 

To meet South Africa’s net-zero ambitions, an estimated 150 GW of renewables and 125 GWh of storage will be needed by 2050, requiring investments of more than US$220 billion. NOA has a crucial role to play in this regard. As our Investment Director, Ed Stumpf, emphasises: “We believe a business model such as NOA’s is imperative to rapidly scale the adoption of renewable energy in South Africa. The electricity we are supplying in this way is not only green but significantly more affordable. Ultimately, that translates into industries that have become unviable, such as beneficiation of minerals, becoming viable again.” 

Key milestones in 2024 

Over the course of the 2024 financial year, NOA recorded notable 

progress and strategic wins under our guidance. These included: 

  • Financial close on 239 MW of wind projects, including both NOAowned assets and third-party facilities. The standout among these was the 140 MW Ishwati wind project, the first major wind project in South Africa to reach financial close with the buyer of the power being a start-up trading company. For the market, this is a significant game changer. The landmark deal closed in 2024 and was publicly announced in early 2025.
  • Progress continued on Khauta Solar, NOA’s flagship 500 MW solar project. The project is now fully permitted and has secured grid access. 
  • More than 1.2 TWh of customers were contracted to the platform with leading clients spanning the mining, data centres, healthcare and property sectors. Leading names included Netcare, Old Mutual Properties, Redefine Properties, Tronox, Teraco and Manganese Metal Company. 
  • Electricity trading licence approval was received from regulator NERSA on 31 January 2025, after a year of fulfilling all the required regulatory steps. 
  • Significant capital commitments were secured, including ZAR3.1 billion in equity funding from AIIM and ZAR420 million in mezzanine funding from Old Mutual Alternative Investments Hybrid Capital. 

Momentum in 2025 and beyond 

Looking towards the next financial year, the intention is to: 

  • Increase equity commitments to ZAR3.9 billion. 
  • Financial close on the 500 MW Khauta Solar project, with a target set for the first half of 2025. 
  • Undertake additional capital raising of approximately ZAR8 billion in mezzanine, guarantees and senior debt to support further growth of the platform. 
  • Build out a total platform comprising some 2.5GW of wind and solar generation derived from both NOA’s own assets and third party options, together with around 1.1 GWhr of Battery Energy Storage System by 2030. 
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