Construction has begun on South Africa’s first Municipality-run solar PV plant, as the City of Cape Town works towards future-proofing its energy supply.
On Monday, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Energy Mayco Member Xanthea Limberg attended a sod-turning ceremony at the City’s 7MW solar plant in Atlantis.
Cape Town is the first metro in South Africa to start construction on its own solar PV plant.
Hill-Lewis says the R200 million project is expected to take about a year to complete and will hopefully be the first of many such plants.
Once completed, the solar plant will feed 7 MW of power directly into the grid. It can potentially be scaled up to 10 MW.
Hill-Lewis says this is an exciting development for Cape Town but also for the people of Atlantis, as it will have significant benefits for the economy and job creation, increasing green jobs across various skill levels.
‘This is one of our flagship projects in our priority programme to build a more secure energy future, with advanced plans to diversify energy sources for cleaner and more affordable energy. This is so vital as we face another massive Eskom price hike.’
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The first power from the Atlantis project is expected to be delivered near the end of 2025.
‘Not only are we breaking ground today for the construction of the solar PV plant, but I am thrilled to announce we’ve just issued our very first 5MW battery storage tender. The battery storage facility will be constructed on this same site. We are leading the pack in South Africa and I am proud that our solar plant is the first one under construction in the country.’
The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Project aims to serve as a pilot project to eventually incorporate energy storage within the City’s network.
By co-locating the battery system at the Atlantis PV plant, it allows the solar PV and BESS to operate in synergy as a hybrid plant.
Potential tenderers have been invited to visit the City’s tender portal for more information and to submit their application before 20 November 2024.
READ: Cape Town’s 2050 Energy Strategy.
