Anton-Louis Olivier

Anton-Louis Olivier is an experienced CEO and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of international experience in the renewable energy sector. Most notably, he founded and served as CEO of the REH Group of companies (South Africa) in 2006. He established REH as a hydropower development business and the group grew to become a leading developer, owner and operator of small hydropower plants in South Africa with activities across Southern Africa. In 2021, he arranged an exit from REH for himself and his co-investors in the business through an outright sale of REH and all its assets to a European project developer. Qualified in mechanical engineering and with a postgraduate degree in economics, both from the University of Pretoria, he worked initially in the public sector as well as in private sector consulting and spent two years as a project manager with the United Nations Environment Programme in Denmark. After jointly establishing NuPlanet, a sustainable energy project development company in the Netherlands in 2000, he also opened its offices in South Africa. In 2014, NuPlanet South Africa was integrated into the REH Group.
Anton-Louis has a clear track record of execution in all aspects of independent power producer (IPP) development and financing, and on hydropower specifically with procurement, construction and operations. He established and acted on behalf of three IPPs in raising development funding, as well as debt and equity for construction, achieved financial close and managed the construction process up to commercial operations. Between 2010 and 2021, as REH Group CEO, he was responsible for the business administration and commercial management of two project- financed IPPs and served as Managing Director of the operations and maintenance contractor for three hydropower plants.
He was responsible for several innovative firsts in the South African IPP sector, including the first project-financed IPP (Bethlehem Hydro) to be registered by the South African energy regulator (NERSA), the first IPP with power purchase agreements (PPAs) utilising wheeling arrangements to supply private commercial customers, the first South African participation in international carbon credit transactions (CDM) as well as a first trade in the South African carbon offset market in 2020. Both Bethlehem Hydro and Stortemelk Hydro have been recognised by several industry awards. Anton-Louis also founded New Africa Power (NAP) (Mauritius) in 2017, in a USD 10-million joint venture with Norfund (Norway) and responsAbility (Swiss) to develop hydropower projects in Zambia.
After his exit from REH in 2021 he has taken up a non-executive directorship in a listed energy fund and served as a senior advisor to several independent power producers. He’s also a founder and director of a new private debt fund providing senior debt to the renewable energy power sector in South Africa. Anton-Louis is a regular moderator and speaker at local and international energy sector conferences and workshops. He is also a Board Member and Vice President of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) and has represented the IHA at the International Energy Agency (IEA). He is based in Cape Town, South Africa.