AREF II: supplying clean and accessible energy in Sub-Saharan Africa

AREF II is the second fund of the manager Berkeley Energy. It is dedicated to developing, building and operating renewable energy generation or storage projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Proparcohas invested EUR 15m in the AREF II fund, alongside other development finance institutions: CDP, CDC, FMO, Swedfund, the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA, managed by the African Development Bank) and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF, which is part of the Climate Investment Funds).

AREF II will focus on developing, building and operating assets and technologies related to renewable energies in Sub-Saharan Africa (except South Africa). It benefits from a significant owner pipeline and an experienced team. It will mainly target run-of-river hydropower, wind and solar projects, as well as battery storage opportunities. It will focus on medium-sized grid-connected projects, generally between 10 and 100 MW.

Electricity demand in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to more than double by 2040. This will require USD 100bn of investments a year in the electricity sector. AREF II will contribute to reducing this deficit by improving access to clean electricity for underserved populations in Sub-Saharan African countries. It will also support economic growth and job opportunities in these countries by supplying reliable electricity to companies in rural and periurban regions. The project is expected to support 7,370 jobs over the next 5 years and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by some 196,500 tCO2 eq a year. The project will thereby contribute to SDG 7 “Affordable and clean energy”, SDG 8 “Decent work and economic growth”, SDG 9 “Industry, innovation and infrastructure” and SDG 13 “Climate action”.