NEoT Capital announces a new partnership signed with EDF and Meridiam to launch its new investment platform: NEoT Offgrid Africa.

The objective of the platform is to invest hundreds of millions of euros over the next five years in distributed renewable energy projects in Africa. The platform provides a solution to the challenge of replacing traditional, polluting electricity generation methods (oil lamps, diesel engines, etc.) with clean solutions (solar power + batteries).

The market is estimated to be worth several billion euros, and has become more accessible thanks to some recent technological advances, especially batteries and the digital economy (mobile payment technologies in particular). NEoT Offgrid Africa will invest in projects that serve both consumers and businesses (industrial facilities, telecom towers, commercial buildings, hotels, etc.). Indeed, the facts are striking:

• everal hundreds of millions of African homes have little or no access to electricity, and solar solutions (like solar home systems and accessories) that are accessible and appealing to the general public are now financially viable, paid for in installments over a period of years.
• African companies use dozens of GW of diesel capacity to cover their own needs for electricity. It has now become competitive to cover part of this production with renewable energy solutions; solar solutions in particular, which are a sound choice on a continent with so many hours of sunshine. Integration of batteries, which becomes more and more competitive, can allow in some cases for 100% of these needs to be switched to renewable energies. As an added bonus, those solutions will lead to a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution.

NEoT Offgrid Africa will invest in projects delivered in partnership with developers of projects and technologies. In addition to financial support, it will also provide strategic support, working closely with its leading investors:

• EDF brings its technical expertise, network, and decades of operational experience in Africa
• Meridiam brings its network, investment capacity, and experience in funding and delivering projects in Africa

NEoT Offgrid Africa will be up and running before the end of 2017, as soon as regulatory authorization is obtained.