Cape Town, South Africa — Just two years after securing a massive $200 million investment from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a relatively little-known South African company, Mulilo Renewable Energy Ltd., is rapidly reshaping the country’s energy sector.
Founded in 2008, Mulilo has since become a dominant player in South Africa’s growing renewable energy market, especially in utility-scale battery storage projects. Despite intense competition, Mulilo has won more battery project bids than any other company, signaling its fast rise as a major challenger to Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the state-owned electricity monopoly.
The Danish private equity firm CIP, which specializes in green infrastructure investments, provided crucial capital to Mulilo in 2023. This funding has accelerated Mulilo’s ambitions to transform South Africa’s energy mix and reduce the country’s reliance on coal-fired power.
Jan Fourie, Mulilo’s CEO, speaking from the company’s Cape Town office, said the company is targeting financial close on projects worth 36 billion rand (around $2 billion) this year alone. “We want to shape the future of the energy market in South Africa,” Fourie said.
South Africa’s electricity sector has been under pressure for years. Eskom, which still generates over 80% of the country’s power from coal, has struggled with corruption, aging infrastructure, and ongoing power outages. This has created opportunities for private renewable energy companies like Mulilo.
While Eskom has plans to expand its own renewable energy and battery storage capacity, the utility is currently reorganizing into separate units for generation, transmission, and distribution to improve its financial health after years of government bailouts.
“Eskom will remain a player,” Fourie noted, “but their role will diminish over time as coal plants retire and renewables become more prominent.” Mulilo aims to be a key partner alongside Eskom and other players in the evolving market.
CIP has ambitious plans for Mulilo, aiming to help the company deliver a 5-gigawatt portfolio of wind, solar, and battery storage projects in the coming years. Currently, Mulilo operates about 420 megawatts of renewable energy capacity.
Over the past three auction rounds, Mulilo has secured roughly two-thirds of preferred battery storage bids, totaling about 1.1 gigawatts. A quarter of these projects have already reached financial close.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa noted that battery prices, like solar and wind, have dropped significantly due to increased competition, improved bank confidence, and declining technology costs. Fourie added that Mulilo benefits from “a very deep supply chain” for lithium-ion battery technology, helping lower project costs.
However, Mulilo’s success has not been without controversy. Some political parties and labor unions have questioned the fairness of the bidding process, especially pointing to Mulilo Chairman Jan Oberholzer’s former role as Eskom’s chief operating officer. They also raised concerns about CIP’s majority foreign ownership, a sensitive topic given South Africa’s firm stance against selling national transmission assets.
Minister Ramokgopa dismissed these criticisms, emphasizing that all auctions were conducted with transparency, competitiveness, and thorough due diligence.
Despite progress, the country’s power grid remains a bottleneck. Eskom must reinforce the grid to support more renewable energy, planning to build 14,000 kilometers of transmission lines over the next decade. Fourie highlighted the uncertainty around grid availability: “Today you’ve got grid, you think you have grid, and tomorrow it’s gone.”
For Mulilo, moving projects quickly into construction is critical to ensure power generation and sales can begin without delay.
As South Africa’s energy landscape evolves, Mulilo Renewable Energy is positioning itself as a key player in the transition toward cleaner, more reliable power for the nation.
