GreenWish Partners supports Orange in its energy transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo
25 August 2017
Kinshasa, August 25th 2017 – GreenWish Partners (GreenWish), an independent renewable power producer in Africa, announces a partnership with Orange to implement clean energy solutions for Orange’s network of telecommunication towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The partnership involves GreenWish and its operational partner Sagemcom deploying hybrid solar power generation systems that combine solar, battery and diesel fuel to boost energy efficiency.
This first lot of 250 telecom towers spread throughout the Congo represents the launch of a new model of electricity supply for Orange in the country. This model, called ESCO (Energy Services Company), has already been launched in India and the United States. It consists in outsourcing the investment, installation, modernization and operational management of electricity generation infrastructure in order to optimize electricity consumption, reliability, environmental impact and the energy costs of the telecom operators.
With its new offer, GreenWish aims to equip 10,000 towers with hybrid solar solutions in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020, an estimated investment of about USD 800 million. The continent has some 240,000 telecom towers to date depending on diesel generators, a figure that is expected to reach 325,000 by 2020 according to GSMA.
“Our service offerings for telecom operators are based on both GreenWish’s exceptional capabilities in financial engineering and capital mobilization and the depth of operational experience of our partner Sagemcom. The signing of this first contract with a leading operator such as Orange in DR Congo is a great success, as it proves that our solution is perfectly adapted to the African context. We look forward to working hand-in-hand with Orange on the deployment of this solution in other countries,” said Charlotte Aubin, president of GreenWish.
“We are thrilled about this partnership with GreenWish that will enable us to meet our ambitious energy efficiency targets. Using smart hybrid solutions for telecom tower equipment is one of the key development solutions for telecom operators in Africa. The DR Congo is particularly well suited for the deployment of efficient diesel-hybrid technologies, a country where fuel transportation is often unpredictable and expensive due to the poor state of road networks and the huge distances to be travelled,” explains Jean-Michel Garrouteigt, Managing Director of Orange in DR Congo.
About GreenWish Partners
GreenWish is a renewable power producer dedicated to Sub-Saharan Africa, and a pioneer of solar energy in Sub-Saharan Africa.
GreenWish was founded in 2010 by Charlotte Aubin and joined by Gilles Parmentier in 2014. In 2016, GreenWish finalized the development, financing and commissioning of the first solar Independent Power Producer in West Africa, and largest solar plant in Sub-Saharan Africa (excl. South Africa), the 20 MW Senergy 2 solar PV plant.
Since its creation, GreenWish raised $270 million equity from institutional and private, African and institutional investors, including the energy and resources Private Equity firm Denham Capital, with the objective to develop, finance and build a 600 MW portfolio of on-grid and off-grid projects by 2020. GreenWish has a team of 22 members with offices in France, Ireland, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria and features over 300 MW of projects in advanced development and a project pipeline of 1 GW across Sub-Saharan Africa.
For more information, visit www.greenwishpartners.com
About Sagemcom
A French high-tech group of international dimensions, Sagemcom operates on the broadband (digital home, set- top boxes, Internet routers, telephony and multimedia terminals), smart city (smart meter, smart grid, smart infra, smart sites and smart services), and Internet of Things markets.
With revenue of around 1.6 billion euros, Sagemcom employs 4000 people on five continents and ships every year more than 25 million terminals. Sagemcom aims to remain a world leader in communicating terminals with high added value.www.sagemcom.com
About Orange
Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 40 billion euros in 2015 and 155,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2016, including 96,000 employees in France. Present in 28 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 252 million customers worldwide at 31 March 2016, including 191 million mobile customers and 18 million fixed broadband customers. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan “Essentials2020” which places customer experience at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.
Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.livetv.orange.com or follow us on Twitter: @presseorange.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.
Press contacts
GreenWish Partners
contact@greenwishpartners.com
Sagemcom
Sylvaine COULEUR
+ 33 (0)6 99 37 63 48 presse@sagemcom.com
Orange
Tom WRIGHT
+ 33 (0)1 44 44 93 93 tom.wright@orange.com
35°Nord – Press Relations Agency
Nicolas TEISSERENC + 33 (0)6 18 09 66 90 nt@35nord.com