DEG has provided funding from its Up-scaling programme in order to enable Daystar Power to finance, install and operate hybrid solar power systems for commercial customers in West Africa. The co-financing is part of Daystar Power’s ongoing fundraising activities, targeting both equity and debt financing for the roll-out of its systems to leading African corporate customers.
Daystar Power belongs to the venture builder Sunray Ventures of the German founders Christian Wessels and Jasper Graf von Hardenberg and is currently raising funds for the expansion of its renewable energy activities in West Africa. The company has itself the task of making a significant contribution to the electrification of the African continent and promoting the systematic expansion of renewable energy resources.
DEG, a subsidiary of KfW, is one of the world’s largest private-sector development financiers and is heavily committed to private-sector promotion in Africa with 17 percent (265 million euros) of its new business in 2017.
“The lack of capital and its high costs are one of the key barriers to economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa” said Christian Wessels, Managing Director of Sunray Ventures. “This is especially true for asset intensive industries such as renewable energy generation. We are happy to work together with DEG, one of the world’s leading development finance institutions in financing, installing and operating solar power systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Marco Christ, Head of Development Programmes and Business Support at DEG, added that while the solar-home-system market has experienced substantial growth in Sub-Saharan-Africa in the last years, there is still a lack of larger commercial systems, especially with regard to systems on a lease basis and that DEG is Sunray Ventures to set up this innovative initiative.
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