CrossBoundary Energy, a developer, owner, and operator of commercial and industrial renewable energy projects in Africa, announced their intention to explore financing solutions with Bank of America to rapidly scale their investments in renewable energy solutions for commercial and industrial businesses across Africa at the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The collaboration will enable CrossBoundary’s delivery of about 255MW of solar and wind generating and 50MWh of storage projects, and will serve as an example of a blended finance transaction driving capital flow into Emerging Markets.
CrossBoundary Energy offers its business customers customised, fully financed renewable energy solutions, allowing them to avoid upfront capital expenditure and technical concerns while yet benefiting from cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable power. CrossBoundary is currently delivering a $230 million project portfolio for more than 30 corporate customers across 14 African countries, and is the preferred renewable energy provider for several market-leading companies present in Africa, including Unilever, Diageo, Rio Tinto, Heineken, and AB InBev.
CrossBoundary Group co-founder and Managing Partner Matt Tilleard stated, “We are thrilled to be able to share this news with Bank of America during COP27, which is being held on the African continent, given our shared purpose of promoting sustainable development in emerging economies. COP27 provides an opportune setting for us to express our common commitment to expanding large-scale renewable energy projects throughout Africa. We are honored to be collaborating with Bank of America and other development finance institutions to create a more sustainable future in the region.”
Karen Fang, Bank of America’s Global Head of Sustainable Finance, stated, “Bank of America understands the necessity of establishing renewable energy infrastructure in Africa, where consumer electricity is scarce and commercial operations are impeded by outages. We believe that emerging markets require the net zero transition just as much as developed markets, and we are ensuring that climate finance capital flows in a targeted and equitable manner as part of our own commitment to achieve net zero before 2050 and our $1.5 trillion sustainable finance commitment by 2030. We are excited to collaborate with CrossBoundary, which has a strong track record of renewable energy deployment in Africa and a dynamic development pipeline, and hope that this example will pave the way for more sustainable development in emerging markets.”
Bank of America has established quantifiable goals for sustainable finance and achieved significant progress in mobilizing and scaling capital deployment to assist promote social and environmental transformation. Bank of America declared a goal in 2021 to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its financing, operations, and supply chain by 2050. In 2021, roughly $250 billion of capital was raised and deployed in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as part of the company’s pledge to deploy $1.5 trillion in sustainable financing by 2030.
BofA has banking and financing experience in a variety of geographies, including distributed solar finance solutions for residential, commercial, and industrial customers in emerging countries. BofA is also regarded as an emerging market M&A and capital markets leader.
