Largest African PV plant begins operation

Share

Africa's largest PV plant has gone online in South Africa's Northern Cape.

Developed by California-based SolarReserve, the 96 MW Jasper solar project has completed construction and is fully operational, almost two months ahead of schedule.

Jasper is located in a solar park that also includes the 75 MW Lesedi solar power project, which came online in May, and the proposed 100 MW Redstone concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) plant featuring SolarReserve's CSP technology with integrated energy storage.

As part of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP), Jasper will set aside a percentage of total project revenues for Enterprise Development and Socio-Economic Development for the benefit of the local communities.

"In addition to helping South Africa meet its critical electricity needs, the Jasper Project will bring long lasting economic benefits to the region," said SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith, adding that the company would continuing its positive momentum in the country through collaboration on further endeavors, including upcoming CSP projects.

With more than 325,000 PV modules, the Jasper project will deliver 180,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually for South Africa residents – enough to supply some 80,000 households through a 20-year power purchase agreement with Eskom, the South African power utility company.

Selected by the South Africa Department of Energy (DOE) in the second round of bids under the REIPPPP, the project also marked Google's first renewable energy investment in Africa.

SolarReserve developed the project as part of a consortium that also included South African empowerment investment player Kensani Group and South African renewable energy project developer Intikon Energy. Investors inlcuded South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Intikon, Kensani Capital Investments, Google, the PEACE Humansrus Community Trust and SolarReserve with Rand Merchant Bank providing preference share equity.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.