Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson this week launched the Solar Capital De Aar 3 in the Northern Cape – the 17th solar photovoltaic plant in the province.

“The inauguration of Solar Capital De Aar 3 marks the commercial operation of the 17th solar photovoltaic plant in the Northern Cape province, which has become the country’s mecca for the development of renewable energy sources,” she said, speaking at launch of the plant in De Aar.

The Minister said the commercial operation of the 75MW plant is a huge achievement in scaling up the deployment of renewable energy and in curbing the effects of climate change in South Africa.

The lion’s share of the IPPs

Given that the project is located in the area with the best solar resource potential in the country, the Minister anticipates that it will annually contribute 164GWh to the grid.

“This is enough power to supply approximately 49 525 average South African households with electricity each year. This means that if the energy from the Solar Capital De Aar 3 PV project was available directly to the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality only, it would have powered nearly all of its households,” she explained.

Since the implementation of the REIPPP Programme in South Africa, the province has attracted the lion’s share of IPP projects to date.

“To date, a total of 6 376MW of renewable energy has been procured from 102 IPPs under the REIPPPP. The 51 projects located in the Northern Cape account for 56% of procured capacity – a total of 3 581MW,” explained the Minister.

Best solar power conditions in the world

Minister Joemat-Pettersson said the Northern Cape offers some of the best conditions in the world for solar electricity generation.

Therefore it is not surprising that the province hosts 100% of the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and 65% of the solar PV capacity procured in bid windows to date in the REIPPPP in South Africa, contributing 72.5% or 2 112MW of the total 2 992MW solar power in the country.

This includes three solar power projects with a procured capacity of 15MW from ‘small’ REIPPPP projects, ranging between 1MW and 5MW.

Through the REIPPPP, the Department of Energy is targeting the procurement of 13 225MWs from REIPPs by 2025.

To this end, an expedited bid window was introduced; open to all bids that were not successful during previous rounds as well as other ready projects.

A total 106 submissions for the expedited bid window were received on 11 November 2015 totalling 9 500MW, of which 6 500MW was interest from IPPs located in the Northern Cape.