South Africa’s film and live events industry has a new answer to one of its most persistent operational headaches, diesel generators with Cinergy Mobile Power launching what it describes as the country’s first purpose-built smart mobile power platform for film, television and outdoor events.
The launch rides a broader cost curve, battery prices have fallen sharply over the past 15 years, with further declines of up to 70% expected over the next five, according to analysis from Maarten Vinkhuyzen. That trajectory is reshaping more than electric vehicle economics, it’s now making diesel-free stationary power commercially viable for industries that have relied on generators by default, including film, television and outdoor events, where diesel has long driven up operational costs.
Cinergy’s modular solar-hybrid and battery systems are designed to replace diesel generators outright, providing silent, zero-emissions, grid-independent power with real-time performance monitoring, built to slot into existing production workflows rather than requiring productions to change how they plan or operate. Co-Founder Abe Cambridge framed the pitch around a shift in how productions think about power itself. “Energy has become a strategic production variable, affecting schedules, locations, sound, crew well-being, permitting and budgets. Cinergy is a practical replacement for diesel that works the way productions and event organisers already operate but with lower emissions, less noise, greater reliability and data-backed insights to maximise efficiency. Cinergy combines our team’s deep leadership experience in clean energy and logistics with a genuine personal passion for film and live events. We want to help industries we care about operate at the higher standards that audiences increasingly expect,” said Cambridge.
The company’s most prominent deployment to date came on Netflix’s One Piece Season 2, the platform’s biggest production ever filmed in Africa which used Cinergy systems to run the first solar-powered base camp for a film shoot on the continent. A CineVault 400 kWh battery paired with a 150 kW CineRay solar PV system powered the base camp at Cape Town Film Studios for 24 weeks, avoiding an estimated 78 tonnes of CO2 emissions. A smaller CineSprint 90 kWh battery and 60 kW CineRay system covered off-site portions of the shoot for eight weeks, powering construction-site appliances and electronics while avoiding a further 15 tonnes of CO2. Cinergy staff monitored both systems throughout the deployment, generating energy-usage data alongside the emissions savings.
Cinergy has since powered an ITV Studios reality production in Mpumalanga, running an outdoor temporary studio such as lighting, air conditioning, cameras, on fuel-free battery and solar power for a full week. ITV’s Head of Production Sustainability, Phil Holdgate, said the deployment shifted how the studio thinks about clean power on location. “Productions are looking for innovative solutions that reduce emissions without compromising on reliability or resilience. Cinergy showed that clean power can be practical on location and not just a sustainability goal, but a cost-effective and workable solution,” said Holdgate.
Cinergy’s reach extends past the studio system. At the 2025 AfrikaBurn event in the Tankwa Karoo, one of the world’s best-known off-grid cultural gatherings, Cinergy’s solar-hybrid and battery systems supplied continuous power across nearly six weeks of build, event and strike, with generators needed only briefly during peak demand. The deployment cut noise, fuel logistics and onsite emissions while giving organisers usable energy data, demonstrating the platform’s ability to support large, complex off-grid events in demanding environments.
The commercial case is underpinned by the scale of South Africa’s film economy, 2024 reports cited ZAR 2.52 billion in foreign film production investment into the country, with every rand spent generating a further R2.50 in wider economic activity and power provision alone estimated at 10-15% of that spend. With stricter local filming by-laws, rising community sensitivity to noise and emissions and increasingly stringent sustainability requirements from international studios, clean mobile power is shifting from a preference to an operational requirement for productions competing to stay globally competitive.
Cinergy’s expansion is backed by climate-focused venture firm Holocene, its first seed investor, which committed approximately ZAR 8 million to the company. Holocene General Partner Joshua Romisher framed the bet as a straightforward efficiency play rather than a purely environmental one. “Cinergy is exactly the kind of practical climate innovation we look for at Holocene, a smart business solving a real, widespread problem with technology that simply works better. Diesel generators are a significant and largely overlooked emissions source and Cinergy replaces them with systems that are cleaner, quieter and actually save production money. With proven traction across major international studios and a founding team that knows how to scale climate tech in Africa, we’re confident this is just act one,” explained Romisher.
The company is also building local supply-chain depth, sourcing high-performance batteries from Freedom Won, one of South Africa’s leading energy storage manufacturers, a detail that ties the company’s growth directly into the domestic clean-energy manufacturing base rather than relying solely on imported technology.