South African Renewable Energy Business Incubator

The South African Renewable Energy Business Incubator (SAREBI), was established in 2012 by the Small Enterprise Development Agency Technology programme (SEDA) to incubate businesses in the renewable energy sector.

Its mission is to help energy entrepreneurs in the renewable, clean, alternative energy and energy efficiency sectors to build scalable, profitable and sustainable businesses.

It assists businesses in various stages of development with support services ranging from operational support to enterprise skills training to manufacturing support to coaching.

Sarabi's enterprise skills modules comprise a series of action-learning workshops on a variety of topics that help entrepreneurs make better decisions to run their businesses more profitably and sustainably.

Sarebi works with energy entrepreneurs in different stages of development. These may be would-be-entrepreneurs with a well-thought-through and viable business concept or existing entrepreneurs with a viable business that is facing growth or sustainability challenges.

Entrepreneurs who manufacture or assemble products or components for the renewable energy sector as well as service providers, who install, warrant and maintain renewable energy and energy efficiency products or components, or who deliver services to other renewable energy businesses. Sarebi also supports product development and R&D.

Sarebi supports entrepreneurs with businesses in the following fields:

• Energy efficiency (systems using less energy to provide the same service) e.g. SWH, Led lights etc.
• Embedded generation (such as solar PV systems and small wind turbines).
• Small Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) suppliers, and service providers in this field.