A US$157 million loan will help Cape Town, South Africa’s second-biggest city, to improve its electricity grid infrastructure and integrate more renewables into its power supply.
Engineering News reports that the loan from Germany’s KfW Development Bank was signed in December 2024. A previous €80-million loan from the bank went towards refurbishing wastewater treatment works.
According to the bank, ‘the purpose of the investment is to improve the grid infrastructure of Cape Town to allow for the future integration of more renewable energy and an increase of grid-connected households’.
Kadri Nassiep, Cape Town’s executive director of energy and climate change, says that while a feasibility study must still determine exactly where the loan will be used, some of it might go towards refurbishing the City’s 180 MW Steenbras hydropower facility and building a solar plant.
