Mulilo Achieves Financial Close on 219 MW Orkney Solar PV Project in South Africa

Mulilo has reached financial close on its 219 MWDC Orkney Solar PV Facility in South Africa’s North West Province, marking another major step in the country’s private renewable energy expansion. The project, which has a contracted export capacity of 150 MWAC, is located about 11 kilometres south-west of the town of Orkney.

The financial close signals that all funding agreements have been finalized, and construction and implementation can now move forward with full financial backing. The project supports Mulilo’s wider plan to deliver 1 GW of new power generation capacity every year, strengthening its role in South Africa’s energy transition and efforts to improve electricity supply stability.

A Power Purchase Agreement has been signed with Etana Energy in what the companies described as record time. The agreement highlights strong confidence from both sides in the project’s technical design, commercial structure, and execution capability. Under the agreement, the electricity generated by the solar plant will be sold to Etana Energy’s customers across South Africa.

Once operational, the Orkney Solar PV Facility is expected to generate around 478 GWh of clean electricity annually. This amount of power is sufficient to supply approximately 210,000 households each year. In environmental terms, the project is projected to avoid more than 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually, contributing meaningfully to the country’s climate and sustainability goals.

The facility will connect to the Jersey Distribution Substation through a newly built 24-kilometre overhead transmission line. This infrastructure will allow the plant to integrate smoothly into the regional electricity network. Importantly, the project has been designed to be battery energy storage system-ready. This means storage capacity can be added in the future to improve grid flexibility, manage peak demand, and enhance the dispatchability of renewable power.

The project’s financial close was supported by shareholders Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Norfund. Several financial and advisory partners were also involved, including Absa Bank, Standard Bank South Africa, Fasken, Arup, PepperTree Capital, and ENS Africa. Their combined expertise helped ensure a structured and disciplined financing process.

Jan Fourie, Chief Executive Officer of Mulilo, said the financial close marks an important milestone in strengthening South Africa’s energy security. He noted that the achievement reflects strong partnerships, internal capability, and the growing importance of private-sector generation in addressing the country’s electricity challenges.

Jay Govender, Chief Commercial and Legal Officer at Etana Energy, said the Orkney solar plant is more than double the size of the company’s first solar project, currently under construction with Mulilo. He added that the speed of reaching financial close shows the strength of the partnership and rising demand from customers for reliable, large-scale renewable electricity solutions delivered through Etana’s platform.