Our history
The Gen-E story is a road trip, inspired by the dusty backroads of South Africa's agricultural and farming communities.
Where it began
The Gen-E journey starts more than ten years ago. It literally follows Demetri Pappadopoulos in his jeep as he travels tens of thousands of kilometres on freeways and dusty roads across the Eastern Cape, to meet landowners committed to becoming renewable energy farmers.
It is on this long journey that Demetri's vision is born: a utility-scale renewable energy business becoming a catalyst for building a positive future for all South Africans, from all walks of life.
Those same farms sit next to villages and small towns where a talented child has no realistic route to a good school, a coach or a career. The foundation exists because the energy projects and those communities are neighbours, and because being a neighbour ought to mean something.
We strive to shape positive futures by integrating trust, respect and innovation into everything we do.
From vision to programme
The road trip produced two things: a portfolio of renewable energy projects, and an obligation to the people living alongside them. The five programmes are how that obligation is discharged.