| Construction
IPP, Building Energy, when one of Building Energy’s founders, Matteo Brambilla, had an opportunity for a management buyout. “There was an opportunity last year to submit a
proposal for a management buyout, and that was completed between March last year and September of the same year. We are an integrated IPP. We do development, we do all the arrangements in sponsoring roles and setting up deals, we do project management, and we do construction,” says the CEO of Red Rocket. Red Rocket is a wholly African company, incorporated in Mauritius. It inherits the sites and reputation of Building Energy, including both established and projects in development across Africa, such as the Kathu Solar Park in South Africa and Tororo Solar North site in Uganda. Red Rocket doesn’t niche itself to one type of energy
production and delivers solar, biomass, hydro, and wind projects. This diversity is one of its selling points. The other is its new approach to integrated projects. As Brambilla explains: “For smaller projects or for de- risking purposes, we decide to build projects we then operate and ultimately we own controlling stakes in projects. This approach makes it much easier to remain profitable, especially considering the long delays you can experience in the energy sector. The fact that we can control the project means that we can price risks better and only once. By controlling the project, we benefit from development fees, we take a bit of
margin from construction, operation and maintenance, and asset management. All these go into a blended IRR that allows us to bid low tariffs with utility scale equity returns, but still, let us make our returns to our shareholders.” Headquartered in Cape Town, Red Rocket has staff
across the continent and a network of development, implementation, and funding partners. For the Kruisvallei project, it collaborated with Facility for Investments in Renewable Small Transactions (FIRST), a specialised debt fund established between the German and South African governments. The investment is key to understanding the success of this hydro project and why Red Rocket’s integrated approach is much more effective, says Greg Ansermino, Principal Fund Manager at FIRST. “Red Rocket had a great project that they thought should go ahead” he said, “but they were struggling to get funding from the traditional funding markets. They had a strategy at the time to diversify building energy to create a track record, as an EPC contractor. And the banks were saying, ‘We don’t trust-building energy to a new EPC, we want you to put in place a partnership with a larger established EPC.’ Looking back now, two years later, it’s quite interesting. Three of those five EPC names have gone into liquidation, and Red Rocket has delivered a phenomenal project.” Red Rocket undertook the engineering,
procurement and construction of the plant, while Red Rocket Asset Management is responsible f
Above left: Lower Kruisvallei upstream weir
Top: Emerging gate control panel
Middle:Middle Kruisvallei panel switching Above:Low-Voltage panels
Left: Lower Kruisvallei intake canal and powerhouse building
Below: Inside Middle Kruivallei Powerhouse
www.waterpowermagazine.com | August 2021 | 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
