Renewable energy developer Kibo Energy Plc plans to join forces with Hasta Trust to jointly assess and develop a series of long-duration energy storage projects in South Africa, with an initial target of 36.3GWh.
The projects are owned by National Broadband Solutions (NBS), a subsidiary of Hastur. Work on the scheme will be carried out through an exclusive agreement with Hasta Trust, Kibo Energy said in an exchange filing on Monday. According to the agreement, Kibo Energy will acquire a 51% stake in NBS, while NBS will exclusively acquire the relevant energy storage capacity provided by the long-term energy storage solution. The renewable energy developer will have the right to appoint three directors to the NBS.
The agreement is an important step forward in Kibo's strategy to integrate long-duration energy storage technology into its planned commercial projects, and Kibo will receive a 51% interest in NBS in exchange for exclusive access to Kibo's strategic capabilities and capabilities, in terms of long-term storage solutions for specific market sectors covered by the NBS project portfolio.
The projects will serve specific South African industrial/commercial sectors that have been adversely affected by a recent load shedding initiative by national utility Eskom to address persistent shortfalls in power generation capacity. Load shedding is a blackout during a certain period of the day, which means that there is a period of time every day for several hours when there is no power supply to a particular industrial or commercial sector.
The company previously reached a framework agreement with CellCube to develop and deploy CellCube-based long-duration energy storage projects in South Africa. The technology is expected to be used in the planned long-term energy storage project.
