2025 Year-end Newsletter

Lagos, October 2025: Signing of Power Support Agreement with Jendol Superstores

Letter from the CEO  

Dear partners and friends of Empower New Energy, 

2025 marked a pivotal year in our journey to power Africa's future. 

We brought seven new solar plants online and broke ground on nine additional investments across Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia. These aren't just megawatts, they're measurable impact: significant energy cost reductions for our clients, local job creation, and around 19,000 tons of CO₂.

Looking ahead, we're deepening our presence around three regional hubs in East, West, and North Africa. Our pipeline stands strong at $150 million, backed by committed equity and debt partners, with solar and battery projects poised to deliver financial, operational, and environmental returns to our off-takers. 

What makes this momentum meaningful: we've reached operational profitability and built a resilient organization despite the economic turbulence that swept our markets post-Covid and following the Ukraine conflict. We didn't just survive the headwinds, we strengthened our foundations while others retreated. 

Our mission remains unchanged: empowering African businesses with clean, reliable energy while building enduring value for all stakeholders. Most of the time we unlock solar projects that otherwise would have taken years to come to fruition or not at all. Therefore our investments are truly additional.

Thank you for your partnership and trust. In this newsletter, you'll find highlights from a year that proved what's possible when vision meets execution. 

Terje Osmundsen, CEO, Empower New Energy 

Major advancements in Morocco and Tunisia  

Empower represented by CCO Arwa Temin signed the landmark agreement with Leoni in presence of Norway's Ambassor to Tunisia. In Morocco construction is ongoing on Saray Immo following the contract signing event at Norway's Embassy in Rabat

2025 marks a great leap forward for Empower in North Africa. In Morocco and Tunisia, the manufacturing sector is very dependent on exports to the European market. The EU is now introducing the CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism). “Carbon competitiveness” is therefore an important driver behind our new projects in these countries, in addition to the benefits of our competitive solar tariff. In this article (link pleaseI) from African Business, our CEO is interviewed about how the new carbon border tax is affecting the market.

In Morocco we are busy overseeing the construction of the country’s largest rooftop solar plant, covering the Saray Immo 49 000 m2 new and highly automated logistics and manufacturing hub.  Construction has also started at the first the two factories of OP Mobility, a leading exporter to Europe’s car industry. The 7,5 MUSD investment into the two ongoing Morocco projects, constructed by our local partner Azolis, is estimated to save about 10 000 tons of CO₂ emissions each year. 

Moving to Tunisia, we are proud to share the news that we now, together with our EPC partner AR Solaire, are launching the construction of 2 MW carport and rooftop solar plant for LEONI. This is the first step in the plan to solarize all 10 manufacturing sites of the group.

Decarbonizing steel production in Kenya  

Abyssinia-Awasi Solar Project in Kisumu County, Kenya.

In Kenya, manufacturing companies are affected by high electricity costs. Less than a year after we connected the first solar 2,5 MW PV plant for the Awasi steel plant of Abysssinia Group of Industries, we are now with our EPC partner Spenomatic building our forth investment for the leading East African steel manufacturer, bringing  the total capacity to 9 MWp and producing 14 GWh of clean energy per year. We encourage you to take a moment to view our recently released video here.

Nigeria in the hearth of the energy transition  

This year we have invested significantly in existing and new projects in Nigeria.

Nigeria has been one of our top investment countries in 2025.  In this large and vibrant economy, where most businesses are reliant on diesel generators for their electricity supply, hybrid solutions with solar and batteries have become the standard solution in almost all our investments.  

Empower New Energy played an active role at the Nordic Nigeria Connect that took place in October 2025. Together with Norway's Ambassador to Nigeria, we wrote an article in Nigerian newspaper Business Day about the green transition in Nigeria. During the event, we signed two new investment agreements, for Jendol Superstores and the manufacturer Juddy Bolema, both with Paras Energy as developer and EPC partner. We also had the opportunity to mark the commissioning of Empower’s first investment in the bank sector, 25 solar + battery installations for the United Bank of Africa and the contractor Renewvia.  

Another major event in 2025 was the launch of a second major investment for Justrite Superstores, that will bring the number of superstores powered by solar and built by our EPC partner from 10 to 21, the largest retail solar initiative in West Africa. In Kano, we proudly connected the first of two solar investments, a 1 MWp rooftop solar PV system with a 2 MWh lithium-ion battery storage solution for UMZA International Farms, one of Nigeria’s top rice millers.

Community Development Program  

The Community Development Program in Homa Bay improves the livelihood of the fishing and farming community.

Empower New Energy's Community Development Programme (CDP) is an initiative that stems from the commitment from our lead investors Climate Fund Managers, Norfund and Energy Investors to set aside 1 % of the investment budget to community development. In Kenya we are working with the NGO Renewable World to provide solar-powered cold storage, ice-making, and water treatment systems, to enhance the livelihood of the Homa Bay fishing community along Lake Victoria in Kenya.

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We would like to take this opportunity thank our team of 23 highly dedicated professionals of 13 different nationalities working from Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia and Europe, a unique organization in itself. Also this year our team members have been active on industry and partner events across Africa sharing insights and lessons learned.

As the year comes to an end, we want to thank our partners and investors for their continued trust and partnership. We are looking forward to building and cooperating on our projects further in the year to come. We are wishing you a Merry Christmas and a successful Happy New Year!

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