Leading South African independent power producer Anthem has announced that its giant 475 MWac (620 MWdc) Notsi solar PV project in the Free State has advanced to financial close after concluding private offtake agreements with electricity traders Discovery Green and NOA Group.

The R9-billion transaction has been supported by a consortium of lenders, including Standard Bank, Nedbank, ABSA and Vantage GreenX Note.

Anthem is the lead developer, generator, majority equity participant and long-term operator of the facility, and the Reatile Group is Anthem’s equity partner in the project.

Notsi follows a multi-offtaker wheeling model, making use of agreements with Eskom to wheel power over the national grid through 20-year-plus offtake agreements with traders Discovery Green and NOA Group.

It further highlights the increasing role of traders in supporting new generation projects; a trend that was underlined in a recent South African Energy Traders Association report showing that most of the more than 1 GW of new projects that reached financial close in 2025 were backed by trader offtake commitments.

The two traders will sell the electricity to large and small businesses across a range of sectors, including industrial, retail, mining and farming enterprises. Discovery Green, which has contracted for 290 MW, has also confirmed that some of the electricity will be allocated to Ampli Energy, its joint venture with Sasol that offers month-to-month supply deals to small companies.

Spanning more than 1 000 ha, equivalent in size to about 1 000 rugby fields, Anthem says Notsi ranks as the largest solar PV project in South Africa. It will comprise over 860 000 solar panels and have a yearly energy output of about 1 500 000 MWh.

A China Energy Engineering Corporation-Northwest Electric Power Design Institute JV has been appointed as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, while Anthem will assume the operations and maintenance responsibilities post year two of operations.

Construction is expected to be completed within 26 months.

IMMENSE SIZE

Anthem CEO James Cumming says Notsi has been developed at an “immense size” to provide low-cost wholesale power to the private market, while also ensuring it can amortise the significant grid upgrades the project is building on behalf of Eskom and the National Transmission Company South Africa.

“The scale and strategic relevance of Notsi epitomises the progress of solar energy wheeling in South Africa,” he adds, arguing that the multi-offtaker wholesale model represents the future of energy security in South Africa.

Anthem, which was launched in 2025 following the integration of African Clean Energy Developments and EIMS Africa under the African Infrastructure Investment Managers-managed IDEAS Fund, with the Mahlako Energy Fund and Norfund, now has more than a gigawatt of wind and solar projects for private offtake in operation or under construction.

This is in addition to the renewables capacity it has built following public procurement bidding rounds, which translates to a portfolio of more than 2.7 GW across 17 operating wind and solar projects. It also has an 11 GW greenfield pipeline.

Discovery Green CEO Andre Nepgen says the Notsi project will introduce significant new renewables capacity onto the grid at a time when businesses are prioritising long-term price certainty and a clear pathway to decarbonisation.

He also notes that the project is permitted for a battery energy storage system and that Discovery Green is considering other hybrid and flexible generation to balance variable renewable electricity, where the commercial case makes sense. 

“Projects of this scale enable Discovery Green to offer businesses, whether big or small, access to globally competitive energy prices without investing themselves or taking unnecessary risk,” Nepgen asserts.

NOA Group CEO Karel Cornelissen describes the Notsi project as an important milestone in its work to “aggregate renewable energy from wind, solar PV and battery energy generation facilities to significantly ramp up renewable energy”, in the country.

“Our aim is to enable private-sector decarbonisation in South Africa and the Notsi solar project does just that, at a significant scale,” Cornelissen enthuses.