RACA Journal I October 2026 www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za 11
SOLAR ENERGY
FROM TENDER TO TARIFF: BANKABLE SOLAR
By Eamonn Ryan business
At Solar & Storage Live Africa in Gauteng, a high‐level panel unpacked what really makes solar projects bankable in southern Africa – and why this increasingly hinges on how large electrical loads like HVAC & R are designed and integrated.
At Solar & Storage Live Africa in Gauteng, a panel discussion took place on the topic‘ From tender to tariff: Bankable solar and the emerging role of HVAC & R in southern Africa’, with moderator: Maria Michael, MD of Michael & Co Sustainable Power, and panellists:
• José Louis Boba, CEO Verdability
• Andrew Gilbert, MD Ideematic
• Chikoma Kazuga, head of business development and new ventures, Africa Greenco( Zambian‐headquartered renewable energy off‐taker and trader active in Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and parts of DRC).
In southern Africa, the conversation about renewable energy is rapidly shifting from aspirations to implementation detail. For consulting engineers and system designers in the HVAC & R space, this shift is highly material: our systems are among the largest, most controllable electrical loads in commercial, industrial and cold-chain facilities. The way projects move from tender through to tariff – and ultimately to financial close – now directly shapes the design context for large cooling and ventilation systems.
A first, fundamental point made by the panellists is that technology is not the limiting factor. The constraint is bankability. Investors and lenders are looking for a credible long-term revenue stream anchored in a bankable off-taker and a wellstructured Power Purchase Agreement. Policy and regulatory frameworks must support that structure rather than undermine it. For HVAC & R professionals, this matters because many of our clients – cold storage operators, food and beverage plants, logistics hubs, hospitals, shopping centres, data centres and large commercial campuses – are exactly the kinds of electricity users that can anchor a bankable project if their load, credit profile and contractual framework are properly designed.
Outside South Africa, one of the biggest hurdles is the quality and number of viable off-takers. The panel highlighted that while South Africa has Eskom plus a decent pool of large C & I( commercial and industrial) consumers, in many neighbouring markets there are only a handful of entities able to sign long-term
PPAs at utility scale, and many national utilities are in financial distress. This is driving the emergence of aggregators who contract with multiple renewable generators and sell to a diversified portfolio of off-takers, sometimes also trading power through the Southern African Power Pool. From an HVAC & R perspective, this opens the possibility for high-load facilities to be grouped into such portfolios. Well-characterised refrigeration and HVAC loads across multi-site retail, cold chains or industrial parks can be aggregated, giving financiers a diversified demand base with familiar risk characteristics. Designing systems and controls with this aggregation in mind – both in terms of electrical profile and operational flexibility – can materially improve the bankability of the overall scheme.
Maria Michael, MD of Michael & Co Sustainable Power.
Another theme, particularly in the South African context, is sector reform and market liberalisation. Historically, vertically integrated utilities have dominated, but the move toward open access and wheeling has been described as a game changer. The ability to site a PV plant where resource and land are optimal, and then wheel power to a distant load centre, has unlocked gigawatts of private projects that would not have been viable under a purely centralised IPP framework. For HVAC & R system designers, this creates several technical opportunities.
The panel also explored the recurring gap between awarded tenders and genuinely bankable projects. Competitive bidding can drive tariffs down to levels that looked achievable at bid submission but become unrealistic as equipment prices, exchange rates and finance costs evolve. In some cases, authorities issue PPAs with attractive nominal tariffs but contractual structures that financiers cannot accept.
All images by © RACA Journal
RACA Journal I October 2026 www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za 11