South Africa’s newest solar-farm is officially in operation and will now provide electricity to an estimated 40,000 South African homes. The Sirius solar-park, built and operated by Scatec Solar already feeds an estimated 86MW of electricity into the national grid.
Country-manager for Scatec Solar, Jan Fourie, says once fully completed, the solar-farm will provide South Africa with an additional 258MW off electricity, powering up to 113,000 homes.
The Sirius solar-park is the first of three projects that are situated on adjacent plots, 25 kilometres outside of Upington in the Northern Cape.
Scatec Scolar says while the three plants won’t be enough to solve load shedding altogether, their combined output is equivalent to all the power rationed during stage 2 load shedding, and could help prevent the use of expensive emergency diesel generators.
Less than 2 yrs after previous Energy Minister Radebe facilitated the signing of 4th round REIPPP power purchase agreements, the first solar farm is already up & running. REIPPP 5 could make a huge difference in a short time and reduce load-shedding risks https://t.co/iR2yp6UXsn
— Anton Eberhard (@AntonEberhard) February 19, 2020
