Bank of America and CrossBoundary Energy are exploring opportunities with development finance institutions to structure a blended finance loan facility that will support CrossBoundary’s efforts to scale commercial and industrial renewable energy projects and battery storage solutions in Africa.

Finance facilities will support CrossBoundary’s development pipeline of approximately 255MW of solar and wind generation and 50MWh of storage projects.

CrossBoundary Energy, a leading developer, owner, and operator of commercial and industrial renewable energy projects in Africa, announced today in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt at the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference, their intention to explore financing solutions with Bank of America, to rapidly scale its investments in renewable energy solutions for commercial and industrial businesses across Africa.  The collaboration serves as an example of a blended finance transaction driving capital flow into Emerging Markets and will support CrossBoundary’s delivery of approximately 255MW of solar and wind generation and 50MWh of storage projects.

CrossBoundary Energy provides tailored, fully financed renewable energy solutions to its corporate customers, allowing them to avoid upfront capital expenditure and technical risks, while still benefitting from cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable power.  CrossBoundary is currently delivering a portfolio of $230 million in projects for more than 30 corporate customers across 14 African countries and is the renewable energy provider of choice for several market-leading companies present in Africa, including Unilever, Diageo, Rio Tinto, Heineken, and AB InBev.

Crossboundary Energy installation for Unilever Tea Kenya

Matt Tilleard, co-founder and Managing Partner, CrossBoundary Group said, “We are very excited to be able to share this news alongside Bank of America during COP27, hosted on the African continent, given our common goal of bolstering sustainable development in emerging markets. COP27 is an appropriate backdrop to articulate our shared commitment to expand large-scale renewable energy projects in Africa.  We are proud to be working with Bank of America, and as well as development finance institutions, to build a more sustainable future in the region.” 

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Karen Fang, Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Bank of America said, “Bank of America recognizes the importance of developing renewable energy infrastructure in Africa, where energy is lacking on a consumer level and commercial operations are hampered by outages. We believe emerging markets need the net zero transition as much as developed markets, and as part of our own commitment to achieve net zero before 2050 and our $1.5 trillion sustainable finance commitment by 2030, are ensuring climate finance capital are flowing in a targeted and equitable manner.  We look forward to working with CrossBoundary, which has a solid track record in renewable energy deployment in Africa and a robust development pipeline, and hope this example paves the way for more sustainable development in emerging markets.”

Bank of America has set tangible sustainable finance goals and made measurable progress in mobilizing and scaling capital deployment to help drive social and environmental change. In 2021, Bank of America set a goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in financing activities, operations and supply chain before 2050.  As part of the company’s commitment to deploy $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030, approximately $250 billion of capital was mobilized and deployed aligned with the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals in 2021.

BofA has experience lending and arranging renewable energy financing in a number of regions, including distributed solar financing solutions for residential and commercial and industrial customers in emerging markets. BofA is also recognized as an M&A and capital markets leader across emerging markets.

Source: Bank of America