A rooftop solar project at Juja City Mall in Nairobi, Kenya has been commissioned. The project t is the first o be financed by Centennial’s new C9 Fund. Centennial is a power company operating in the United States and 6 countries in Africa.
The C9 Fund, launched this month by Centennial, is dedicated to financing solar and battery storage projects for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The projects are designed to lower power costs for SMEs, while improving the predictability of power supply and lowering the environmental footprint of their operations.
Founded in East Africa in 2014, Centennial has been operating battery energy storage systems in the region since 2016. “Battery energy storage systems are low cost and long duration, with a small footprint. Since we installed our first battery energy storage system over 6 years ago, we have demonstrated the ability of battery energy storage to power critical operations for businesses and organizations,” said David John Frenkil, Founder and Managing Director of Centennial. “Most organizations that we have worked with face frequent power outages and inconsistent power quality. Battery energy storage is increasingly playing a major role in addressing this challenge, replacing the role of polluting, expensive and high maintenance diesel generation. For our customers financed under Centennial’s new C9 Fund, power supply is now primarily a mix of the utility, solar and battery energy storage.”
Juja City Mall is a multi-use facility, containing 220,000 square feet, an 80-room hotel, a school and medical facilities, located just 20 minutes from Nairobi’s city center. Tenants include Naivas Supermarket, Total, Bata and two health clinics – Caremax and Medicross.
Under the project’s agreement, Juja City Mall will not incur any capital expenses because the project is fully financed through Centennial’s C9 Fund.
“With Centennial’s solar project, Juja City Mall’s power supply is now an investment, not a sunk cost,” said James Gachiri, Managing Director of Juja City Mall. “Our management welcomes this project because every kilowatt-hour generated from the solar project is building new equity for our company, as ownership of the solar project will be transferred from C9 Fund to Juja City Mall at the end of the contract’s term. And it is an initiative that allows us to ensure that we meet our sustainability goals for years to come.”
Centennial co-developed the project with Galweather Consulting, a renewable energy developer and consulting firm. The project was designed by Centennial’s in-house engineering department and Mazard Engineering installed the project.
C9 Fund’s upcoming pipeline of projects includes SMEs working across numerous sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, commercial real estate, hospitality and education. The fund is designed to align with SDG-7, the United Nations’ seventh sustainable development goal, which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.
