The company first looked at solar during the crippling load shedding of 2023, seeing its potential to help address spiralling power costs and reduce reliance on polluting generators. Bushvalley Chickens selected New Southern Energy, a leading renewable energy developer active in Southern and East Africa, to construct a 2.5MWp ground-mounted captive solar plant at its facility in Limpopo province. The site was commissioned in November 2024.

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Recognising the benefits of phase 1 to its business, Bushvalley Chickens reapproached New Southern Energy (NSE) in 2025 to expand the project. The second phase includes 2.7MWp of solar PV, coupled with 7.2MWh of battery energy storage, in an innovative structure whereby the solar PV will charge the batteries during off-peak hours, and discharge them during peak demand hours in the morning and evening. This enables the company to benefit from self-generation during the costliest grid hours. In doing so, not only will the company save an estimated ZAR 2.1 mil annually, it will also help ease grid congestion during these peak times, thereby helping reduce emissions intensity on the grid.

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The project is being financed by Spark, a platform managed by Camco, London, which is an active financier of solar and energy efficiency projects in Africa’s commercial and industrial sector. The upfront financing by Spark eliminates the capital expenditure requirement from Bushvalley Chickens, which instead repays through the renewable energy delivered.

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Since inception, Spark has financed over 30 projects across East, West and South Africa, with Bushvalley Chickens representing the second under Spark’s new partnership with NSE. The project, which will come online in June 2026, is expected to generate almost 3.4GWh of renewable energy annually, save the client almost 30% on like-for-like power costs and create 70 jobs during construction and operations.

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"Following the success of the first phase at Bushvalley Chickens, we are proud to continue our partnership with the team to deliver this advanced solar and storage solution. By integrating battery storage to manage peak demand, we are helping the client move toward greater energy independence while securing significant cost savings. We are excited to work with innovative partners such as Spark to scale renewable energy and improve energy access across Africa, demonstrating how sustainable infrastructure can drive growth for high-impact sectors like agriculture", notes David Masureik CEO of New Southern Energy.

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Spark lead Adam Fitzwilliam commented “the agriculture sector is a major employer in the region, and we are excited to build on our track record supporting agriculture clients with sustainable energy for growth. NSE’s experience in delivering sizeable projects of this nature gives us confidence in the partnership and we look forward to building on this work with David and his team over the coming years.”