SOUTH AFRICA – Norway’s Magnora ASA, a renewable energy company, has announced that it has received environmental authorization for its 260MW solar PV project in South Africa.
According to the company, the environmental authorisation for the project, expected to produce an estimated 600 GWh of electricity per year, is a significant milestone.
According to Magnora, the environmental authorisation signifies that the project has the majority and most important permits in place.
“We are very pleased with our development in South Africa and see great interest from potential buyers in the market for mature projects,” said Erik Sneve, CEO of Magnora.
“We hope and believe that we have projects ready for divestment already by the end of this year, confirming the great potential for attractive value creation we see in the South African renewables market.”
Magnora South Africa is through its development company AGV developing the projects from greenfield to ready-to-bid/build phase and is constantly working on organically sourcing new projects to the portfolio.
“The AGV team has showed impressive speed and competence within solar and wind project development, being confirmed through the significant milestones achieved over the last months,” said Espen Erdal, VP Business Development in Magnora.
“The expected yearly energy output for the solar PV project shows the attractiveness for renewable energy in South Africa.”
In February 2021, Magnora made its entry into the South African renewables market through the acquisition of an 850 MW project portfolio, and further strengthened the investment by acquiring 92 % of the renewable project development company African Green Ventures (AGV) in February 2022.
AGV is a project developer within large scale solar PV and onshore wind and has a good track record of sourcing renewable projects on behalf of various clients.
AGV holds project rights of more than 800 MW wind and solar PV projects after recently signing land lease option agreements in prime locations to be added to Magnora’s existing portfolio of 850 MW.
The portfolio of projects under active development currently consists of approximately 1.8 GW in South Africa.
The acquisition was to subsequently bring Magnora’s South African portfolio to a total of approx. 1.7 GW. AGV’s goal is to develop a portfolio of more than 2 GW solar and wind projects in South Africa while increasing cost efficiency and de-risking through economies of scale.
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