The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) provides finance for industrial development projects, playing a catalytic role in promoting partnerships across industries within and outside our borders, promoting regional economic growth.

The corporation is actively promoting green industries in the country and, in a new series of articles, business decision makers will be able to learn more about the green economy and the funding mechanisms available.

According to Rentia van Tonder, the head of Green Industries at the IDC, the corporation’s research shows that the green economy has the potential to create much needed jobs in South Africa, especially in the downstream or upstream side of the generation cycle.

This is because the upstream investments are often large renewable energy projects that are very capital intensive.

She adds that the IDC has shifted its focus accordingly and will for example, focus on manufacturing of green components such as the solar industry. More specifically, the IDC has identified concentrated solar, as an industry where there is a huge opportunity for South Africa to develop a local industry, which could also be established as a hub for the rest of Africa.

“So that’s really where most of our focus lies in trying to develop the value chain to support job creation,” she says.

To further the development of the green economy, the IDC established the Green Energy Efficiency Fund, which is a specific fund focusing on energy efficiency and assisting companies to become more energy efficient.

Van Tonder says that the fund gives businesses access to a preferential interest rate of prime less 2%, “which is really an excellent encouragement for companies to invest in energy efficiency.

“So at the same time when they save energy and save on their electricity bill, they can also get funding at a very competitive rate, which will assist them to maintain the jobs that they currently have and they don’t have to retrench.”

Another example, she adds, is that the IDC specifically focuses on community involvement, including a community funding element, in all its renewable energy large-scale projects.

– Staff Reporter.