With several new renewables and battery storage projects under construction or being advanced to financial close, 2025 is poised to be a significant year in Mulilo’s ongoing transition from an entrepreneurial developer, which took minority stakes in projects, to a leading South African integrated independent power producer (IPP).

Towards the tail-end of last year, the Cape Town-headquartered company was awarded five projects during the second bid window of South Africa’s battery storage procurement programme, as well as a 240 MW solar PV project under South Africa’s seventh renewables bid window. Earlier, it concluded a private power purchase agreement (PPA) with Air Products South Africa for a 75 MW solar PV project in the Northern Cape.

In all cases, Mulilo is the consortium lead, representing a departure from past practice where it took minority positions. This was the case even with relatively recently awarded projects, including the battery storage projects secured after the first bid window, where EDF International led the consortium in which Mulilo participated, and the 260 MW renewables PPAs with Sasol and Air Liquide, where TotalEnergies led the consortium.

CEO Jan Fourie tells Engineering News that its newest portfolio of projects epitomises the business’ strategic evolution towards being an integrated IPP; one that has been facilitated largely by an investment made into Mulilo by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) in 2023.

“Prior to the CIP investment, Mulilo was the developer of the projects, and then worked with bigger partners and took minority equity stakes.”

The entrepreneurial founders Johnny Cullum and Christopher Aberdein continue to be minority investors and members of the board, which is now chaired by former Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer.

However, there has been a philosophical shift not only towards more rapid growth – a 5 GW target has been set for the coming five years – but also to the company increasingly taking the equity, construction, asset management, operations and maintenance lead in projects.

Mulilo currently participates in an operational portfolio of wind and solar PV projects of 420 MW, while its overall construction portfolio stands at 592 MW, including those projects where it is still a minority equity participant.

The company expects another 75 MW project will close soon and that a total of 1 GW should close during 2025 as a whole.

“The shift to being owner-operator means Mulilo needs to be more operationally hands-on and capacitated.

“It’s an evolution that we believe to be necessary if we are to compete effectively against the large international utilities entering the South African renewable-energy market,” Fourie explains.

It is also likely to mean ongoing growth in employment, with the company having already expanded from about 45 people in July 2023 to 140 currently and with plans to expand the business to more than 200 people by the beginning of next year.

In addition to adding capacity, Mulilo will begin adding new capabilities, including the likely creation of a national control centre to enable it to manage its portfolio of power stations around the clock.

The immediate priority, however, is to shepherd projects where it is the preferred bidder to financial close, to execute on the projects that have reached financial close and to continue to enhance its future project pipeline.

Fourie expects that the five battery energy storage system (BESS) projects awarded to it in December under the second bid window as well as the solar PV project awarded under the seventh bid window will have advanced to financial close by the fourth quarter, after which construction will begin.

The projects have a combined capital expenditure (capex) value of about R11.78-billion, with the BESS projects calculated at a combined R7.68-billion, while the solar PV project will involve capex of R4.1-billion.

The projects include the 76 MW/304 MWh Mulilo Mercury BESS, based in the Free State; the 77 MW/308 MWh apiece Welverdiend and Leeuwpoort BESS projects, in Gauteng; the 77 MW/308 MWh each Rooikoppies and Hartebeesfontein BESS projects, in North West; and the 240 MW Middlepunt solar PV project in the Free State.

Mulilo is partnering with various empowerment companies, while its funding partners include Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank.

The engineering, procurement and construction contractors have been identified but have not yet been appointed and Fourie expressed some concern about the capacity of the construction industry. That capacity could be stretched even further should proposed infrastructure developments in the transmission, logistics and water sectors begin materialising.

Mulilo itself has not taken a firm position on whether it will participate in any independent transmission project procurement programme that could arise later this year, nor on whether it could move beyond renewables and battery storage into gas-to-power.

Fourie says its current narrow focus on renewables in South Africa has served it well and is likely to remain Mulilo’s focus for the medium term.

“I think we have proved that we can win and close projects.

“Now we are entering a very important execution phase and we need to prove we can construct and operate projects,” Fourie says, while stressing that it is continuing to develop a pipeline of projects that can be bid into both the public and private markets.