South Africa’s mining entrepreneur Patrice Motsepe announced he has established an energy and power company, African Rainbow Energy and Power (Arep), which will be headed by former Eskom CEO, Brian Dames.

The aim of starting the power company was to help bridge the current energy gap in Sub-Saharan Africa while encouraging public-private partnerships in the region’s energy sector, ESI-Africa reports.

Describing the initiative, Dames said: "It will be of significant size and scale and it will be African in its character and capacity.”

He added that Arep’s management team has been scanning the environment for opportunities across Africa and is in the process of developing the portfolio.

The company will focus primarily on renewable energy technology, where according to Dames, several opportunities have already been identified, as well as energy sources such as gas, hydropower and coal.

 Arep is set to move into the operational stage, with renewable generation highlighted as a viable place to start, as projects can be designed and built in a shorter period of time compared with other base-load plants such as coal and nuclear.

Arep’s funding would be both from its internal resources and from the market, which had been very receptive to the new firm.