West Africa-focused solar provider, Starsight Energy, on Tuesday announced landmark performance in 2020. Despite the economic uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company saw an 88% increase in managed sites and a record 74% growth in revenue.
Founded in 2015, Starsight provides renewable energy solutions to Commercial & Industrial (C&I) clients including banks, petrol station operators, schools, universities, and large commercial agricultural companies. It delivers an end-to-end service – from assessing a client’s energy needs to the installation and maintenance of a renewable energy solution and ongoing technical support.
Over the course of 2020, Starsight added 280 sites – reaching a total of 528 sites. In addition, the company reached 36 MegaWatts of generating capacity, 28MWh of battery storage, and 13,890 HP of cooling capacity – a 110% growth across all systems over twelve months.
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That makes the company one of the continent’s largest independent energy and cooling-as-a-service providers delivering enterprise-grade solutions to bluechip clients.
“We are very proud of the growth we have achieved but also of what we have done to serve our communities during the pandemic – beginning with the health and safety of our team, but also via pro bono work such as our powering of a hospital in Ekiti State, Nigeria to support rapid Covid-19 testing,” CEO Tony Carr said.
Backed by Helios Investment Partners and African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), two of Africa’s largest private equity firms, Starsight recorded significant deals in 2020 in spite of the regional economic slowdown occasioned by the pandemic.
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The company closed a 10-year N3.6 billion debt facility with the Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund, and Norfund and Finnfund doubled their existing debt facility with Starsight to $20 million. The first quarter of 2021 has continued to bring strong demand for Starsight’s solutions, it said.
This year, Starsight plans to expand into “new geographies in Africa while continuing to innovate with new technologies,” Carr added. The company currently operates in Nigeria and Ghana, where it launched its model of end-to-end power and cooling services last year.
