Climate and impact fund manager Camco subsidiary Spark Energy Services has signed an agreement with renewable energy and energy efficiency company GreenYellow South Africa to finance a portfolio of energy efficient lighting projects at 93 of South African fashion retailer Retailability’s stores.

The lighting projects span Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa, and involve replacing outdated and inefficient lighting systems with more cost effective and energy efficient LED solutions.

The upgrades are expected to save about 17 GWh/y of electricity and mitigate more than 18 000 t/y of greenhouse-gas emissions.

The announcement on February 5 marks Spark’s first venture into Southern Africa’s energy efficiency sector and the first time Spark has worked with GreenYellow South Africa.

Through its partnership with Spark, GreenYellow South Africa is able to unlock access to streamlined finance specifically targeted at accelerating energy efficiency adoption in Southern Africa, which is a priority sector and region for both partners.

GreenYellow South Africa provided the equity funding for the work and partnered with Spark to secure debt financing against the portfolio, thereby optimising the capital structure.

As a clean energy transition company, GreenYellow South Africa has a strong record in optimising energy consumption across lighting, refrigeration and heating, ventilation and cooling systems that contribute to measurable cost savings and sustainability gains for its customers.

Further, through its fully funded energy efficiency agreement, GreenYellow South Africa takes on the investment and implementation risk, thereby allowing clients to benefit from energy savings without upfront capital expenditure.

GreenYellow South Africa has set a target of deploying €10-million in energy efficiency projects this year, which reinforces its commitment to driving sustainable energy solutions across the region, the company said.

“This project underscores Spark and partner GreenYellow's commitment to driving energy efficiency at scale across Southern Africa.

“The breadth of this initiative, namely delivering substantial energy savings and emissions reductions across four countries, aligns perfectly with our joint ambition to accelerate the clean energy transition,” Spark director Adam Fitzwilliam said.

“This partnership with Spark marks a milestone for GreenYellow South Africa as we continue to expand our efforts in driving energy efficiency across the region, GreenYellow South Africa director Michael Ilias said.

“By combining our expertise in sustainable energy solutions with Spark’s innovative financing model, we have implemented impactful upgrades that lower energy costs for Retailability and contribute to the company’s broader sustainability goals. We remain committed to accelerating the energy transition in South Africa,” he said.

“In collaboration with GreenYellow, Retailability has blended the joint objectives of improved lighting in stores and energy efficiency targets in our environmental, social and governance programme,” said Retailability CEO Norman Drieselmann.