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Solar photovoltaic power plant for science council’s campus

18th September 2015

By: Anine Kilian

Contributing Editor Online

  

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Construction is under way on a 558-kW- capacity ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR’s) Pretoria campus.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the CSIR’s new single-axis tracker solar PV facility was awarded to juwi Renewable Energies and construction started on June 1.

juwi sees this project as an integral step towards an era of distributed energy generation, where energy will be generated by power utilities not only in a centralised top-down manner, but also in a distributed and varied manner where energy consumers will also become small-scale producers.

“This is a flagship project for juwi, as it will set the benchmark for distributed renewable energy in South Africa. The CSIR, being a scientific body, will verify the performance of this plant against the original design and share the knowledge with the broader community,” says juwi MD Greg Austin.

By pushing the market towards the lowest cost per kilowatt hour offered over the project’s full lifetime, he notes, the CSIR has demonstrated that it is possible for government and public entities to procure smaller-scale renewable-energy facilities at lifetime cost rates, highly comparable to large-scale facilities such as the various larger PV power plants in the Northern Cape.

Austin points out that juwi and the CSIR are pleased with the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) from this project. Using the CSIR’s LCOE model, juwi has been able to achieve a cost of 83c/kWh over the lifetime of the new PV solar facility for the turnkey EPC contract.

The 1 ha tracking solar system will produce over 3.5-million kWh in the first three years.

“The price of 83c/kWh compares favourably with the 82c/kWh pricing from Round 4 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme and we expect the LCOE from a typical Gauteng-based rooftop installation of a similar scale to come in under this price,” he adds.

While the production yield of a fixed-inclination rooftop PV plant is slightly lower than that of a tracking system, the absence of complex tracking components, together with the fact that the plant can often be connected directly to a low-voltage distribution board, means that rooftop PV can deliver electricity at an even lower LCOE.

“In addition, a rooftop installation is expected to produce more electricity for a given area on an inclined roof, as the panels are installed end to end, whereas on the ground, the panels are spaced to reduce shading. On an inclined rooftop, there is better utilisation of the sun’s energy,” he says.

Austin states that the CSIR PV plant will be generating electricity by the end of the month – within 12 weeks of the start of construction.

“When providing rooftop PV solutions, the expected time of delivery is even quicker, as no civil work is required. Rooftop PV plants can be switched on within as little as six weeks,” he says.

He adds that juwi will also provide operations and maintenance services on the facility for three years after full operation starts.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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