Mulilo Energy names Jan Fourie as new CEO
Mulilo Energy Holdings has announced that former executive vice-president of renewable energy for Scatec ASA, Jan Fourie, will replace Johnny Cullum as CEO in May.
Both Mulilo and Scatec have won bids under the government-backed renewable energy procurement programmes.
Renewable energy developer and investor Mulilo Energy focuses on onshore wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies and battery energy storage systems.
Through its projects developed as part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) and private offtake projects, the company already has 420MW of operational solar and wind power in SA. It has a further 1,087MW of solar PV, onshore wind and battery energy storage system projects currently under financial close.
Cullum said he has known Fourie for years and described him as “one of the most respected, reputable individuals in the renewables industry”.
“I have absolute confidence in Jan’s ability to lead the company as it strives to fulfil its ambitious five-year growth target of 5GW of renewables,” he said.
Fourie said he would “focus on unlocking the potential that Mulilo has to scale its operations and deliver clean, reliable energy to millions”.
Mulilo has previously been awarded seven projects in SA’s REIPPPP, six of which (including wind and solar) are operational and one of which from the fifth bidding round is under development.
It was also awarded two projects under the risk mitigation independent power producer round (RMIPPPP), but last week Eskom announced that it would not extend budget quotes it had issued for outstanding projects under the RMIPPPP, which won their bids in 2021. The budget quotes for the Karpowership SA gas-to-power projects and one project (consisting of a gas-topower plant in a solar PV plant) owned by energy company Mulilo and TotalEnergies, expired on December 31.
As a result of the budget quotes that have expired the Mulilo and Karpowership projects have lost the grid connection capacity that Eskom had reserved for these projects.
In September, Mulilo appointed former Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer as chair and a nonexecutive director. This was shortly after global renewable energy investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ acquired a majority stake in Mulilo.
The company wants to develop at least 5GW of renewable energy projects over the next five years and over the long term it hopes to develop a project pipeline of about 25GW of wind, solar and battery storage projects in SA.