Growthpoint Properties will roll out a wheeled renewable electricity solution, called e-co₂, in South Africa next month (October 2025). The first phase will supply power to 10 Sandton office buildings.
The electricity will come from the new Boston Hydroelectric Plant, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme, and will be wheeled over the national grid in partnership with Serengeti Energy. The electricity is cost-competitive, has a zero-carbon footprint, and supports tenants’ sustainability goals.
To secure supply, Growthpoint signed a 195GWh Power Purchase Agreement with Etana Energy in 2023, covering hydro, wind, and solar sources. The company has partnered with Fuel Switch, an African open blockchain-enabled renewable energy certificate (REC) exchange and winner of the Agence Française de Développement’s Digital Energy Challenge.
The collaboration provides tenants building-level certification of their renewable energy use. They gain direct access to verified, tradeable RECs, which can be used to track, monetise, and report their clean energy consumption.
Innovative green energy certification
Fuel Switch’s platform certifies the electricity as green using Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and AI, providing independent third-party verification. Once certified, the green energy benefit is recorded on a digital certificate.
Each REC confirms that one megawatt-hour of renewable energy has been generated and supplied to the national grid. The RECs are stored on the blockchain as digital assets, each time-stamped and linked to a specific renewable energy source.
When renewable energy is generated, for example from a solar panel, it produces both usable electricity and a certificate confirming that the power came from a clean, renewable source.
Certified green energy as a business currency
Corporates have come under increasing pressure to meet net-zero and ESG commitments. On top of this, sustainability reporting is increasingly carrying the same weight and scrutiny as financial reporting.
RECs can be redeemed for certified reduction of Scope 2 Carbon emissions. Fuel Switch integrates directly with SA’s national REC registry, zaRECs, as well as the global I-REC standard governed by the I-TRACK Foundation.
The blockchain platform provides an immutable record for each REC from issuance to retirement, which ensures auditability aligned with global ESG standards.
With SA’s constrained economic growth, businesses are under immense pressure to grow and find new revenue streams. RECs can be monetised by selling them on the voluntary REC market where rights to green electricity are sought after.
Large companies, like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta, are a driving a surging demand for RECS as they seek to reach 100% renewable electricity for their operations.
Until now, Africa’s participation in the voluntary RECs market has been limited. High costs, slow manual processes and opaque trading made it accessible to only the largest-scale projects.
However, Fuel Switch says this will change in October 2025, when e-co₂ goes live and gives Growthpoint tenants access to a new market.
Green energy trading for Growthpoint tenants
The partnership integrates Fuel Switch directly with Growthpoint’s property portfolio, energy data, and IT systems. It uses blockchain smart contracts supported by IoT devices and business logic to connect all stakeholders in a single automated process.
When e-co₂ rolls out in October, tenants in selected Growthpoint buildings will have their smart meter electricity data automatically verified. The corresponding RECs will be issued to secure digital wallets, which are provided free of charge and accessed through the Fuel Switch Exchange platform. Tenants can use the platform to manage and deploy their RECs, redeeming them to reduce emissions or selling them for additional revenue.
This initiative makes Growthpoint the first company to provide a commercial-scale, wheeled renewable electricity solution with building-level certification and auditable benefits available to tenants.
Fuel Switch’s elegant innovation behind the scenes
Fuel Switch says the system uses automated actions to execute smart contract rules embedded in a secure blockchain database. This process enables independent certification of green energy with high levels of trust and transparency, and provides access to a trading market that has traditionally been limited to large players due to high participation costs.
The platform enables transactions that once took weeks to settle to be completed almost instantly. The smart contract technology offers a cost-effective way to transact, resulting in lower fees. The infrastructure can handle over 10,000 transactions per second and is already used by major corporates in SA.
“It is a game-changer for how businesses can participate in clean energy markets and carbon reduction reporting,” says Werner van Antwerpen, head of corporate advisory at Growthpoint.
“By combining our e-co2 wheeled green electricity property portfolio with Fuel Switch’s blockchain technology, we’re opening the green energy market to businesses of all sizes, creating measurable environmental impact and generating real financial value.”
Gideon Maasz, Fuel Switch COO, says: “Our mission is to make participation in the green economy easier, quicker, more cost effect and more transparent. Our partnership with Growthpoint accelerates this goal. With blockchain as the backbone, every REC is verifiable, tradeable, and audit-ready, fully aligned with evolving IFRS sustainability reporting standards.”
While both e-co2 and the Fuel Switch integration support Growthpoint’s long-term environmental goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its portfolio by 2050, the companies say the implications are bigger. The solutions are built around Growthpoint’s tenants which consist of thousands of businesses in several sectors of SA’s economy.
Fuel Switch says that a well-functioning green energy market is important for energy security and job creation. The platform developed with Growthpoint is designed to support broader participation in the green economy. Because it is an open platform, Fuel Switch can be used by any business or individual worldwide.