Cape Town - The New Development Bank (NDB), known as the Brics Bank, said on Monday that Eskom will receive $180m (R2.6bn) in assistance for renewable energy projects, part of a package of $811m (R11.85bn) in green energy loans it approved last week.
A spokesperson for the bank said the Eskom projects would involve transmission lines to carry 670 MW of generation and 500 MW worth of renewable energy projects involving independent power producers.
The founding members of the NDB - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) - have brought in capital of $1bn (R14.61bn) as an initial contribution.
South Africa contributed $150m (R2.2bn) towards the bank in December through the sale of its stake in Vodacom [JSE:VOD], which is part of its $2bn (R29.2bn) commitment South Africa must pay the NDB over a seven-year period.
"This is an important milestone for the bank and we are delighted to have met the goals and the time schedules envisioned by the leaders of the Brics countries,” Brics president K V Kamath said in a statement.
“With this we embark on a journey to provide speedy assistance to projects across developing nations. We are pleased that the projects deal with green and renewable energy and hope they will act as catalysts for development in our member states."
In accordance with its core focus, this first set of projects being financed by the NDB is in the area of green and renewable energy.
It is estimated that the projects will collectively provide additional generation capacity of 2 370 MW of clean energy, leading to reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of nearly four million tonnes per year.