A 475MW solar project backed by Standard Bank and developed by Anthem Solar is not being built to feed the national grid in the traditional sense. Instead, the power will be sold directly to companies through aggregators like Discovery Green and NOA Group.
The plant is expected to generate 1.5 million MWh annually, equivalent to powering around 140,000 households. That places it among the largest single-phase solar PV projects in South Africa.
For years, businesses have absorbed the cost of unreliable electricity, turning to diesel generators or scaling down operations during outages. Now, instead of waiting for grid stability, they are contracting power directly from private producers.
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Standard Bank’s role goes beyond lending. It is structuring the deal, shaping how capital flows into energy projects that bypass traditional utility channels. Anthem, with a 2GW pipeline, is positioning itself to scale this model further.
This raises a harder question: who benefits from this new system? Private buyers gain reliability. Developers secure predictable revenue. Banks earn from financing and structuring.
What remains unclear is the impact on the broader system. If large consumers exit the public grid, the cost burden shifts to smaller users. At the same time, private generation adds capacity that could ease pressure on the network.
The unresolved issue is pricing. Is this electricity cheaper than what Eskom provides or simply more reliable? That answer will determine whether this model expands beyond large corporations into the wider economy.
By Thuita Gatero, Managing Editor, Africa Digest News. He specializes in conversations around data centers, AI, cloud infrastructure, and energy.
