Magnora has acquired 92% of the renewable project development company African Green Ventures (AGV), with an aim to increase its focus in the South African solar and wind market
The remaining 8% will be owned by AGV management. Simultaneously, Magnora is selling all its shares in Vindr AS to its founders and discontinues the development of Vindr Group with Vindr AS.
The acquisition will subsequently bring Magnora's South African portfolio to a total of approx. 1.7GW. AGV's goal is to develop a portfolio of more than 2GW solar and wind projects in South Africa while increasing cost efficiency and de-risking through economies of scale.
“We see great opportunities in South Africa, both in the short- and long term, and we expect increased power consumption due to economic development and green electrification. AGV's approach to sourcing attractive projects is complementary to our methods and capabilities, and we look forward to having them as a part of the Magnora team,” said Erik Sneve, CEO of Magnora.
Currently, more than 80% of the energy production in South Africa is from coal fueled power plants and more than 10,000MW of the domestic coal energy capacity is expected to be decommissioned by 2030, increasing to 35,000MW by 2050. This makes South Africa an attractive region for solar and wind development together with storage technologies. According to the Integrated Resource Plan from 2019, new capacity to be added between 2019 and 2030 includes 14,400MW onshore wind and 6,000MW solar PV, which might increase further to replace decommissioned coal power plants.
