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Picture courtesy: (Tsebo Cleaning Solutions) South Africa set to get largest solar farm post construction by SolarAfrica Energy.
(The Post News)- SolarAfrica Energy, an Independent Power Producer (IPP) officially began construction of its first utility-scale solar farm on Tuesday, in the Northern Cape Province.
The project has been named SunCentral and will be built in three phases. The first phase of the project will generate a total of 342MW, with the additional two phases set to bring the total power generation to 1000MW.
David McDonald, CEO of Solar Africa Energy spoke about the importance and power of partnerships behind the establishment of SunCentral, what it deemed as the key driver behind the success of the project, according to SolarAfrica Energy’s media statement.
“A project of this magnitude would not have been possible without the power of partnerships. Over the past decade, Eskom has found new and tangible ways of making wheeling a reality in South Africa. Their dedication to partnering with the private sector is proof of their commitment to address South Africa’s power generation struggles,” said CEO David McDonald.
Virtual wheeling was first announced by Eskom’s former CEO Andre de Ruyter in September 2022, it subsequently launched eleven months later in August 2023, signing its first deal with Eskom. Virtual Wheeling is a process that allows industrial and commercial customers to have access to Eskom and municipal electrical networks to import electricity from renewable IPP.
The project would not have come into existence without Soventix South Africa, the company that originally designed the project for submission into the government’s Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP).
SolarAfrica Energy purchased the rights of phase 1 of the cluster development from Soventix South Africa.
Soventix South Africa will continue to develop the remaining 2 phases, stated the company.
SolarAfrica Energy has also mentioned that it has partnered with two other firms to construct the solar farm.
The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) firms, Proconics and Sinohydro have been deemed as being instrumental to the success of the project according to the company.
That is because Proconics will be responsible for installing the project’s Main Transmission Substation (MTS), with Sinohydro carrying the duty of installing over 500,000 solar panels.
Vantage Data Centres, ATTACQ and Empower Trading are the companies that have signed up for phase 1 of the project.
“It is clear that businesses are keen to benefit from the cost-saving and environmental benefits of Wheeling. With phases 2 and 3 in the pipeline, there will be more opportunities for businesses to sign up” said the company.
Once complete the project will be a giant leap for South Africa’s solar power generation, the project will be six times larger than Solar Capital’s De Aar Project, the country’s current largest solar power generator.
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