Renewable energy firm Kibo Energy has entered into an exclusive agreement with Hasta Trust to assess and develop a portfolio of long-duration energy storage projects in South Africa.
The project will be exclusively held by National Broadband Solutions (NBS)— a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasta— with an initial target of around 36,320MWh capacity.
Kibo will acquire a 51% interest in NBS in exchange for granting NBS exclusive access to its long-duration storage “strategic capabilities and capacity” for specific market sectors covered by NBS’s project portfolio.
Kibo will appoint three directors to the board of NBS with Hasta appointing two directors.
The projects will service specific industry/business sectors within South Africa that are impacted by the frequent load shedding imposed by the country’s national utility.
Last month, Kibo announced a framework agreement with vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) maker Enerox (known under its trademark Cellcube) to develop and deploy the latter’s technology.
Austria-based Enerox is a subsidiary of South African firm Bushveld Minerals.
The rolling five-year Framework Agreement is expected to develop and deploy up to 1GWh of CellCube-based long-duration energy storage sytems in selected target sectors in southern Africa.
Under the Agreement Kibo has been granted conditional exclusive rights, subject to successful Proof of Concepts to the marketing, sales, configuration and delivery of CellCube’s VRFBs.
The deal includes the development of its long-duration energy solutions in microgrid applications behind the meter; for any utility-scale projects the parties will work on a non-exclusive basis.