Shell Acquires Daystar Power: Expanding Renewable Energy Portfolio in Africa

 Almejot Shell has acquired Hybrid Solar Power Provider Data Power in a deal that will expand Shell's global radiables portfolio. We have Victor Ezenwoko, the Chief Commercial Officer for Data Power Group. Nigeria and I join me now for more details on this acquisition. Thank you so much for your time today Victor. Looking at this deal, I'm very curious to know the nature of this acquisition. Is it more of an outright ownership or are they going to be partners in progress for this business? Good afternoon and thank you so much for having me. We're very excited about the deal and I think it's important to mention here that as part of the deal, Shell has complete ownership of Data Power Group moving forward. However, they have empowered us as an management to continue into great work we have done so far in expanding and then providing our solutions leading corporates across the continent. So the management is staying on board operations continue under the ownership and guidance of Shell Group. All right, I see this as an energy transition story here because we're seeing an old major here more or less looking to expand our radiables portfolio. Now, I'd like you to speak to what it means for the renewable industry to see deals like this come true. Thank you, that's a pretty good question. I think for the industry as a whole, it's amazing to see, right? If you look at how the industry has evolved over the last three to five years, it's great to see large energy companies traditionally or like as companies coming in to actually support and foster the growth because they have the financial capacity, also the experience to help with this big push and it can take a continent like Africa from where it is, where it needs to be, helping us harness some of nature's gifts to us like the power from the sun to actually reduce our energy cost and then help serve the underserved areas or regions. And I'm also curious, you know, what Shell, the only party interested in this acquisition, whether other people you are speaking to are more or less how wedding negotiations and how did they play out on White Shell? So I can't say there were a number of coaches interested in investing or an acquisition with base of power group based on our track record and the successes we've had during the market Eda in West Africa. However, we chose to go with Shell for a few reasons. One, they have long rich history in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. They also have significant experience that would be useful for us as well. Last week, we, no, not last week, but we also shared a common vision of providing more cleaner solutions. And last but not least, they have the financial capacity required to make the type of change that we're looking to impact the continent. So our main aim, as they start powerless to support corporate, so commercial industrial clients, by providing them with renewable energy solutions that help give them power that is more reliable, cleaner and also more affordable. And with a company like Shell, like I said, they have an actual capacity to help us do this at a much larger scale. They also have a long rich history in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. And we felt like we had a lot of scenarios together. Right, and having a common vision always is always a plus for any business deal. But at the end of the day, it always boils down to money. And I'm looking at your numbers here. You're planning to increase in store capacity here by 135 percent this year alone. And you're also looking to achieve about 400 megawatts by the year 2025. And it makes me curious about this size of this deal. How much is invested here? So, so we're currently not at liberty to disclose that information. How about at least you can give us a range, you can talk around. Unfortunately, I can't disclose. All right, but let's get into the potential of the market then, when you see the off-grid part markets going in the near term. So in the near term, I think it's hard to have a proper assessment on the size of the market, right? Because we have belief and impression that we're just fairly scratching the surface, right? If you look at Nigeria as a case study, there's about 14 megawatts, no, 14 gigawatts gap that we need versus what we're actually able to produce on the national grid. If you look at the number of generators you've seen with Africa is more than the other regions in the continent, right? So all of those situations provide opportunities for renewable energy as a whole to come in this place to use of these are general traditional diesel generators. At the start power, like you said, coming into the year we had about 20 megawatts of solar installed. We planned to end this year at around 50, 52 megawatts and we have a vision which shall to install 400 megawatts by the end of 2025. So that gives you an idea of the kind of growth that is still available in the market to grow from 50 to 403 years. It shows you that we believe that there is a lot of opportunity in the market and now we're focused to actually make sure we can make the most of it. It's good to see that the financial banking is now here and you're talking about capacity now, but I'd like to get here more about your expansion plans in terms of the food print, in terms of countries that you're looking to touch, even within Nigeria, how many more locations you're also looking to impact as well. Okay, perfect. So currently we have systems operational in Nigeria, Ghana, Togbo, Senegal. And yeah, so first aim is to continue to expand in the work we've done in the West African region, right? I've heard as an Nigeria scene how much more we can serve leading corporates and commercial clients here. Next, like you'd rightfully mention, is the expansion across the continent. So we're looking at the Eastern African region and also the South and African region. We believe there's a lot of opportunity there. So we expect to go into a few countries there in the coming months.

Oil major Shell has acquired hybrid solar power provider, Daystar Power, in a deal that will expand Shell's global renewables portfolio. Victor Ezenwoko, Chief Commercial Officer, Daystar Power Group, Nigeria joins CNBC Africa for more. 

Shell acquires Daystar Power

Oil major Shell has acquired hybrid solar power provider, Daystar Power, in a deal that will expand Shell's global renewables portfolio.

Shell acquires Daystar Power

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