Cape Town set to become first metro in SA to start construction on its own solar PV plant

Cape Town is set to become the first metro in South Africa to start construction on its own solar photovoltaic (PV) plant. This as the City moves to diversify energy resources and become future-fit.

Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, and Mayco Member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg, have turned the sod at the City’s 7MW – 10 MW Atlantis PV plant.

‘’What an exciting day this is for Cape Town and also for the people of Atlantis. 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,’’ said Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

COURTESY: COCT

The project which costs R200 million is expected to take about a year, after which the Atlantis solar plant is expected to be connected to a nearby main substation to feed 7MW (and potentially scalable up to 10 MW) directly to the grid.

‘’It is the first utility-scale renewable energy project in Cape Town and will be owned and operated by the City. The first power is expected to be delivered near the end of 2025. The idea is to potentially have a number of similar plants rolled out across the metro in the years to come,’’ said Hill-Lewis.

‘’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.’’

‘’This project forms part of our broader SA-record infrastructure investment of R39,5bn between July 2024 and June 2027. Thanks to our officials for their dedication and also thanks to the Atlantis community for the great support that has been shown for this project,’’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

 

 

 

The City awarded the tender for engineering, procurement and construction of the plant to the Lesedi Technoserve Consortium.

‘’The City currently uses 75% of the tariff income from our electricity sales to buy Eskom power. With the continued Eskom-price escalations, the most recent being an almost 44% hike requested, we simply have to diversify the energy resources. These hikes are not sustainable for the City or our residents and we will continue to fight against these exorbitant increases,’’ said Xanthea Limberg, Mayco Member for Energy.

The Atlantis site will also house a first utility-scale battery storage operation, and potential tenderers are asked to visit the City’s tender portal for more information and to submit their application before 20 November 2024.

‘’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. The BESS project will target a minimum rated power output of 5 MW, and have a useable energy storage capacity of 8 MWh,’’ said Limberg.

 

Done by: Mitchum George