Africa's largest photovoltaic power plant starts generating electricity in South Africa

In November, Norway's ScatecSolar announced that the company’s 75MW large-scale photovoltaic power plant built in South Africa had been integrated into the grid three months ahead of schedule. The power station began construction in November 2012. It began selling power 10 months later on September 27, 2013 and was put into use on November 12. This is currently the largest photovoltaic power station in Africa and will supply electricity to Eskom, a South African state-owned power operator, for 20 years.

The photovoltaic power plant is part of the South African government's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP) program for purchasing renewable energy from independent power generation operators. The project will build a total of 47 power stations that use photovoltaics, wind power and small hydropower, and have signed a 20-year contract for the sale of electricity.

Among the 47 renewable energy power stations, there are 27 photovoltaic power plants with a total output of 1048MW. Under the promotion of REIPPPP and other factors, South Africa and other African countries will continue to build dozens of MW-class photovoltaic power stations in the future.

The total investment of the REIPPPP project is 74 billion rand (about 58.26 billion renminbi), but according to ScatecSolar, in addition to the above-mentioned power stations, 17 more power stations have been added, and the total investment will increase to R 100 billion. (about 78.73 billion yuan ***).

The grid-connected 75MW photovoltaic power station was built on a 105-hectare sheep farm in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The land was rented from a sheep farm and a total of approximately 312,000 solar panels were installed. The estimated annual power generation is approximately 135,000 MWh, equivalent to approximately 33,000 ordinary households.

In terms of construction funds, in addition to its own funds from ScatecSolar, there are investment from Norwegian state-owned Norfund, Norwegian investment company Simacel, South African investment company Stanlib, Standard Bank, and South African life insurance company OldMutualLifeAssurance. Equipment investment fees come from standard banks**. Some of the electricity sales revenue and dividends of this PV power plant will be used to support the social and economic development of local communities within a radius of 50km.

The overall goal of the REIPPPP project is to create about 300,000 new jobs. More than 600 people work at the peak of this 75MW photovoltaic power plant at the time of construction, and most of them are employed locally. More uniquely, ScatecSolar emphasized in the release of information that 16% of the people involved in the construction are women, and such detailed release to gender is relatively rare. These women are widely involved in management, operations, and construction.

In addition, ScatecSolar also emphasized that 10-15 people are required for operation and maintenance after the start of power generation, and operation and maintenance will also deepen cooperation with the local area in the next 20 years.

Itochu Corporation accounts for approximately 37.5% of the proportion of ScatecSolar's investment. Following this 75MW photovoltaic power plant, ScatecSolar also plans to build a total of 115MW of two photovoltaic power plants in South Africa, namely the 40MW photovoltaic power station in the Northern Cape and the 75MW photovoltaic power station in the Eastern Cape, both scheduled Power generation began in 2014.

Including this 75MW photovoltaic power plant, the total output power of the photovoltaic power plant constructed by ScatecSolar has reached 300MW.

In addition, SMASolarTechnology, a manufacturer of photovoltaic inverters (PCS) in Germany, also announced that the 75MW photovoltaic power plant uses the company's products. The company provided 84 central control PCSs, 42 intermediate transformers, and 840 string monitoring systems.