South Africa

Utility Eskom is seeking proposals to build a 75 MW solar plant at the Lethabo Power Station in South Africa’s Free State province.

PNE AG, a Germany-based developer, has sold a 240 MW photovoltaic project in South Africa’s Free State province to energy company NOA Group.

Africa Data Centres’ new solar farm in South Africa’s Free State will begin as a 12 MW array. It will initially service its Cape Town site, before extending to supply power to the company’s facilities in Johannesburg.

A spinoff of Germany’s Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has developed a compact vehicle-integrated PV system integrated with medical support equipment to provide off-grid, off-road mobile healthcare in rural communities. The PV modules with integrated energy management system supply all the electricity required for maintaining a cold chain for vaccines, medicines and samples.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) of South Africa has opened the third bid window for its Battery Energy Storage IPP Procurement Programme (BESIPPPP), which is procuring a total of 1,744 MW of four-hour battery storage systems. It has also announced the final winner from the first window.

Cape Town, South Africa, has opened an online portal to simplify the authorization process for solar and reduce approval waiting times.

DNV has started working on blending feasibility studies in the Canadian province of British Columbia, while the US Department of Energy has announced $750 million in funding for 52 hydrogen projects across 24 states.

With the size of utility scale solar projects in the nation having ballooned, the lessons learned from South Africa’s first big solar field continue to help developers roll out PV as a key energy source.

Air Liquide and Sasol have signed new power purchase agreements (PPAs) with South Africa’s Enel Green Power RSA. The two companies have entered into four PPAs since the start of 2023 and are now set to supply around 690 MW of renewables to Sasol’s site in Secunda, South Africa.

The provincial government of Gauteng, South Africa, plans to set up a solar park with a capacity of at least 800 MW. Premier Panyaza Lesufi says 100 MW could be connected to the grid from April.