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Bright and Early: South Africa Solar Plant Completed Sooner Than Expected
Green Technology Featured Articles
September 16, 2013

Bright and Early: South Africa Solar Plant Completed Sooner Than Expected

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

On 250 acres of the Northern Cape in South Africa, in the town of De Aar, one of the very first large-scale solar plants to be built in the nation has reached completion—seven months ahead of schedule. That would be quite a feat anywhere, but even in this challenging desert climate and terrain, the EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) team from Siemens (News - Alert)–South Africa was up to the job.


Work began on the De Aar plant in December 2012 and was targeted for completion 16 months later, on April 3, 2014. However, the very last of 167,580 photovoltaic panels from Wuxi, China-based manufacturer Suntech has been put into place by hand, completing the 50-megawatt (MW)plant—a part of the Government of South Africa's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP).

The project was among the first 18 solar PV projects, collectively representing 632 MW of capacity, to reach financial close in November 2012 as part of REIPPPP. According to Engineering News, in all, 28 renewables projects reached financial close last year, followed by another 19 this past May.

Savva Antoniadis, project manager for De Aar Solar Power, commented, “The sheer volume of these photovoltaic panels installed on this project site can be experienced by commuters travelling along the R48. Whilst large-scale solar projects have increased at an exponential rate around the world, this is still very new and unique in South Africa. No one on our team has done such a large-scale project before. Considering that over 70 percent of our workforce are from the local De Aar community and have been trained on-site, we have much to be proud of.”

During the peak construction period, 520 jobs were created—73 percent of them, filled by local residents—and about 3,000 modules were installed manually each day. The project also is expected to create permanent operational positions.

De Aar Solar Power is majority owned by Globeleq and its consortium partners, Mainstream Renewable Power South Africa, Thebe Investment Corporation, the Rebuna Litsasi Trust, Enzani Technologies and Usizo Engineering. Siemens is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project and will provide maintenance services for the first five years of operation. Construction is managed by Mainstream Construction. The project company is managed by Globeleq,

"The site is a sea of blue," Globeleq South Africa Managing Director Mark Pickering remarked to Engineering News. He noted that positive progress also has been made on the consortium's other two projects. The projects include the 50 MW Droogfontein solar PV power project, outside Kimberley, in the Northern Cape, as well as the 138 MW Jeffreys Bay Wind Farm project, in the Eastern Cape. The shareholders are identical across all three projects save for the community trusts."The good news is that, for a new industry, things are going incredibly smoothly. The South African construction industry is taking the renewables program in its stride," Pickering stated. Consortium members are, thus, eyeing participation in upcoming REIPPPP opportunities.


Edited by Alisen Downey


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