The UK is joining international investors in pledging cash to boost the development of battery storage technology in South Africa.
Prime Minister Theresa May said the UK will provide a £56 million (US$73m) contribution to an aggregate US$500m energy storage investment package claimed to be the first of its kind in the region.
May, whose announcement came as she toured African nations on a pre-Brexit trade mission, said the contribution would be through the World Bank-backed Clean Technology Fund.
The aggregate investment package has been developed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank to “fast track the delivery of energy storage technologies, which promise to ease the integration of wind and solar farms to South African local and national power grids”, the UK said.
UK business secretary Greg Clark also held out the possibility of future cooperation with African nations on battery technology research.
“Science and innovation has no borders with many of the best discoveries being international partnerships and collaborations,” Clark said. “These initiatives will deepen our ties in these important areas with our African partners for years to come.”