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De Aar solar project nears completion as solar becomes more attractive

De Aar solar project nears completion as solar becomes more attractive

Photo by Duane Daws

4th December 2015

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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As South African solar substructure company PiA Solar celebrates the installation of its one-millionth solar panel and the near-completion of a 90 MW Northern Cape solar farm, business development director Axel Pustet assured that renewable energy was fast becoming a more attractive alternative to nuclear energy in South Africa.

Speaking at a site visit to PiA’s current project, the installation of 300 001 solar panels on Solar Capital’s 150 ha solar farm project, SCDA3, just outside De Aar, he explained that, over the past year, the “picture” of solar and wind energy had slowly shifted.

Solar energy, in particular, had emerged as a more viable, affordable and competitive form of energy generation than traditional coal-fired power generation and nuclear.

Since making its mark in the first round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), solar power had steadily reduced in price from R2.50/kWh to between R1.10/kWh and R1.20/kWh during the third round currently under construction.

Under the fourth round, the cost was expected to drop further from an earlier 83c/kWh to as low as 63c/kWh during the later portion of the rounds’ applications, with the bulk of the projects expected to come in at just below 70c/kWh.

At this level, solar energy became highly competitive with conventional coal and nuclear power, Pustet argued, adding that, by the time the nuclear power project, which was a 10- to 15-year initiative, came on stream, it would be too late.

“We cannot imagine that the nuclear power plant will be finished – the time [to build and start operations] will make it simply obsolete. [The build] is much too expensive and solar energy can already now produce power cheaper than a nuclear power plant,” he said.

Solar and other renewable-energy projects were already under construction under the umbrella of the REIPPPP, and around 1 800 MW of renewable power had already been connected to the national electricity grid by June.

Further, some 100 potential projects, with an estimated 7 GW of photovoltaic power, that were not selected during the bidding windows, were on standby.

“The REIPPPP is only part of the story,” Pustet noted.

Smaller-scale solar projects were also starting to gain popularity, with miniprojects aggregately equating to around 100 MW expected to come online in 2015.

“PiA is seeing an increase in demand for small-scale solar plants by the owners of factories and agricultural processing plants, landlords of major shopping centres and offices and residential complexes,” he explained.

Since its inception in 2012, PiA had installed 400 MW of solar, with 260 MW using their locally designed and manufactured structures.

PiA had gained traction since Scatec Solar awarded it the round-one contract to design, manufacture and install the frames for the 75 MW Kalkbult solar project in the Northern Cape.

The group was now responsible for the installation of one-million solar panels – said to be enough to power around 83 300 three-bedroom homes.

Now the group was finishing up the SCDA3 project, which was started in June, with completion expected early in January.

Currently, 277 000 solar panels were installed on site, said PiA cofounder Colin Muller during the showcase of the project to media and stakeholders.

Further, the 300-strong PiA team installed 11 011 panels – enough to generate power for 920 average-sized, three-bedroom homes – in one day in November.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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