South Africa

With South Africa’s solar industry moving toward a phase of market-led growth, Sim Khuluse, from the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA), says the challenge for the forthcoming year is moving ahead with grid modernization and expansion.

South Africa’s cumulative solar capacity likely exceeded 10 GW by the end of last year, according to analysis from the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association.

Research exploring off-grid practices in South Africa has defined three forms of off-gridding, with reasons for being off-grid varying depending on income background, in turn highlighting that decentralized energy transitions can reproduce existing inequalities.

Naos‑1 is described as South Africa’s biggest private utility‑scale solar and battery storage project, designed to wheel power to industrial customers.

Researchers have studied the potential of combining photovoltaic systems with compressed air energy storage (CAES) to power a commercial building in South Africa. They found that a co-optimized system could lower total capital costs by 15–20% compared to traditional sequential sizing approaches.

The South African energy utility is seeking applicants to provide design and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, as well as operations and maintenance services for a solar PV plant at its Duvha Power Station with a minimum 17 MW AC capacity and a maximum evacuation capacity of 30 MW AC on a site with an environmentally authorized land of 35.2 hectares.

The South African government has turned unallocated wind project capacity from the country’s seventh renewables procurement exercise into approved solar projects for the second time. The move takes the total amount of solar approved under the bid window to over 3.9 GW.

Norway’s Scatec has reached commercial operations of a 273 MW solar project in South Africa, the first to be completed from the country’s fifth bid window of its renewable energy procurement programme and the company’s first in the Western Cape province.

South African utility Eskom is urging consumers with grid-tied rooftop solar to register their systems and integrate them with the national grid, waiving registration fees until March 2026.

Investec has become one of the first financial institutions in South Africa to be awarded a license to buy and sell energy, beginning with a 50 MW solar project currently under construction. There are now 14 private companies with an energy trading license in South Africa.