The recent closing of a strategic investment by Rubis Caribbean Holdings in Soleco Energy Limited is to help the firm drive growth in solar-powered developments and to go after new energy storage opportunities across the Caribbean region.

Under the partnership, Rubis, a French company which operates across Africa, Caribbean and Europe, is to offer its global relationships and financial strength while Soleco brings its expertise in solar developments to provide more renewable solutions for commercial and industrial clients across the region.

Rubis, which has for more than three decades specialised in the storage, distribution and sale of petroleum, liquefied petroleum gas and other chemical products, is currently diversifying its business model as it moves to offer less carbon-intensive solutions, in keeping with global sustainability ambitions.

Joining the Pan Jamaica Group, the French company’s subsidiary now ranks as one of the largest investors in Soleco.

The level of investment made by Rubis, though not disclosed, Soleco said will help its business to tap into more markets across the Caribbean.

“This partnership will bring a lot more capital to the business, helping us to build out the team and to expand our technical capacity as we offer more solutions to clients and expand our pipeline and base,” said CEO and founder of Soleco Angella Rainford during an interview with the Jamaica Observer this week.

“Rubis also has client relationships, so we are looking to see how best to service clients that may already have a fossil fuel relationship with them but are interested in renewables. Geographically, there are also a number of countries across the Caribbean that appeal to us, so we are now looking at projects with them in markets such as The Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman, Guyana, and Barbados as we position to leverage growth from the partnership,” she further told the Caribbean Business Report.

Soleco, a renewable energy development company headquartered in the UK, with offices in London and Kingston, was established in 2019 to develop power distribution projects for large commercial and industrial clients throughout the Caribbean. Its investments so far include the 51MW solar power plant in Paradise Park, Westmoreland, Jamaica that cost it US$60 million.

Securing US$900,000 in grant funding from USAID earlier this year, Soleco has been able to enhance its strategic business plan, mobilising capital to bring more solar and energy storage solutions to companies.

Just last month the renewables company, in one of its largest local projects, partnered with poultry business Caribbean Broilers Group to develop solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants across its farm operations.

Bullish in its quest to go after more projects, Rainford touted Soleco’s active pipeline of deals.

“We can’t yet disclose these deals but what I can say is that we have already exclusively signed some large industrial clients across a number of sectors including hospitality, mining and some other heavy industries and we are now looking to convert those projects from pipeline to full implementation,” she said.

The budding female entrepreneur said that her company in scanning new opportunities for growth, have recently started to look at battery storage options. Owing to what she described as a ‘meaningful drop in battery prices’ over the last few years, the prospects for added business in this area she believes to be very strong. Bloomberg in a recent report on energy storage system prices in China sees them more than halving in 2024, tracking below US$100 per kilowatt hour.

“We’ve started to see a lot more potential in this area, so we are now exploring the possibilities to see how best we can further serve our clients’ needs. Our goal is not to take clients off the grid, but to help them reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint,” Rainford stated.

“As we continue to plot our growth in renewables, the outlook is very positive. Our latest partnerships will help us to accelerate what we’ve been doing so far and we expect to deploy our expertise to some larger industrial clients. Currently, we’re very much in growth mode and while these projects do take time, it is our goal to be the number one provider of solar and energy storage solutions for commercial and industrial entities in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean,” she added.